Medicaid is the biggest budget challenge faced by the state of Vermont. By far. Understanding the fiscal, not to mention health care policy, challenges faced by our state requires an understanding of Medicaid. Medicaid is a publicly-funded health insurance program for low-income Americans, lower income children and pregnant women, and blind or disabled citizens. Medicaid is not Medicare. While both programs were created in the 1960s under the Johnson administration, Medicare is a program that provides health insurance for all Americans over the age of 65 regardless of income. Medicaid is a joint state-federal program with a portion of costs paid for by the U.S. Treasury and a portion by

The 2016 legislature has been in session for six weeks, and it is high time to resume the Jim & Tim report. This piece on the Governor’s Budget is somewhat detailed, but that’s unavoidable. We enjoy communicating with you, so here goes. In early January, Governor Shumlin presented his FY 2017 budget. If passed as presented, total appropriations would be nearly $7.6 billion. Of that, $3.734 billion would come through the General, Transportation and Education Funds, and approximately $3.85 billion from an array of Federal funds (including Global Commitment that provides money for health care and Medicaid). As presented, the Governor’s budget is balanced and does not raise any broad based taxes