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Wednesday, May 28, 2003 |
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Posted on May 25, 2003 Senate should include cigarette tax increase in state budget
Senators need to reconsider when they meet again Tuesday and pass a significant increase in the cigarette tax to provide a stable source of income to the Medicaid program. The tax should be a no-brainer. It is popular. It is necessary. And to go without it will be foolish and painful. The state is having problems funding Medicaid. In its budget, the House also refused to raise the cigarette tax, but it funded Medicaid by refinancing the bonds the state issued on its tobacco settlement funds. But the Senate budget makes no provisions to properly fund Medicaid. As Senate Majority Leader Hugh Leatherman reminded his colleagues, this move will have real consequences for many people. He said 6,200 people would lose nursing home care, 12,000 senior citizens would be denied home-based services and 66,000 people would lose coverage from the state's prescription drug program. Taxpayers won't pay for these services through taxes, but they will pay through higher health care costs and higher insurance premiums. These former Medicaid recipients will still have to have care. They will simply use emergency rooms and hospitals. That cost will have to be passed along. South Carolinians will actually pay more because of the foolish direction of the General Assembly. The federal government provides a generous match -- as high as 3-to-1 -- for the money the state spends on Medicaid. By refusing to raise the cigarette tax to raise more money for Medicaid, the state is turning away hundreds of millions in federal funding. It simply doesn't make sense. The state's Medicaid system has to be funded. It needs a new stable source of revenue, and the cigarette tax is a feasible and palatable choice for this revenue. To refuse to use it is unwise. To make no provision for funding Medicaid is unconscionable. When senators go back to Columbia Tuesday, they need to reconsider their decision. |
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