COLUMBIA - Two new analyses say South Carolina's proposed Medicaid changes will reduce health coverage and significantly raise costs to beneficiaries.

The analyses, by the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute, are among the first national looks at the S.C. Medicaid proposal.

According to the studies, if the S.C. waiver is granted, the state is unlikely to provide adequate money to cover long-term chronic illnesses or for people with disabilities.

The proposal sent to Wash-
ington in June would allow for cuts in medical services to all children, the study concludes - not just 19- and 20-year-olds, as the state acknowledges.

That's because none of the plans the state is using as a model for its new children's benefits package offers unlimited, preventive and diagnostic medical care for children, as Medicaid does, the analyses found.

"We wanted to get to this now, basically because there are a number of similar proposals out there - Florida's, which has not been submitted yet, and a concept paper from Georgia - that seek major and important change to the Medicaid program," said Judy Solomon, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Solomon's analysis, "Risky Business: South Carolina's Medicaid Waiver Proposal," will be the subject of a national media call-in today.

Since South Carolina submitted its waiver in June, state Health and Human Services Director Robbie Kerr has said he doesn't intend to cut children's medical services. Under Gov. Mark Sanford's direction, Kerr in June asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for at least 30 waivers, or changes, to the Medicaid program.

As legislators became aware last month that the waiver had been sent to Washington without public input, some asked Sanford to withdraw the request.

Medicaid, the 40-year-old medical safety net for the nation's poor, is under pressure from the Bush administration to cut $10 billion from the ever-expanding program in the next five years.

A newly appointed commission is scheduled to make recommendations to Congress on Sept. 1 on ways to make those cuts.

Sanford has been pushing for cuts to the program for more than a year.

More than 52 million people get Medicaid in America. About 850,000 S.C. residents get the nearly-free medical services.

"The governor's proposal puts children's health at risk and it imposes substantial new costs on South Carolina's most vulnerable children, which will impede their ability to get needed health care," said Joan Alker, senior researcher fellow at Georgetown's Health Public Policy Institute.

Kerr said his proposal, which has touched off controversy South Carolina, was designed to give Medicaid beneficiaries a sense of responsibility and more choice in their health care decisions.