Colorado latest to slash Medicaid coverage for circumcision
A nationwide debate about circumcisions for newborn boys, combined with cash-strapped public health budgets, has Colorado taking sides with 17 other states that no longer fund Medicaid coverage of the once widely accepted procedure.
For years, Colorado lawmakers considered doing away with funding for circumcisions under Medicaid a move that would save the state $186,500 a year. Now facing a seismic budget shortfall estimated to be $1 billion at the beginning of this year, lawmakers finally approved the change, which takes effect July 1.
“We were just looking at virtually every option and trying to decide what was absolutely urgent now,” said Republican Sen. Kent Lambert, a member of the budget-writing Joint Budget Committee. “I think 99 percent of it was completely economic.”
The matter of circumcisions has gotten contentious in California, where San Francisco will be the first city to hold a public vote in November on whether to ban the practice.
Jewish and Muslim families are challenging that proposal in court, claiming it violates their right to practice their religion and decide what’s best for their children.
South Carolina is one of the most recent states to eliminate Medicaid payments for circumcisions amid budget concerns. The change, which went into effect in February, was expected to save the state about $114,800 a year.
Scott Levin, the regional director of the Mountain States office of the Anti-Defamation League, said Jews are unlikely to be affected by the defunding of Medicaid payments for circumcisions.
For them, the procedure is not performed by a hospital physician, but a mohel a specialist trained in Jewish ritual circumcision.
Similar Posts:
- Health care for military reaches $53 billion
- Mississippi tips scale as nation’s fattest state
- Study: Care costs continue brisk growth in 2011
- Dentistry business: Don’t pay over the odds
- Michigan tries to increase number of organ donors
