It is important to realize that the State of Nebraska cannot sustain the current growth rate of our Medicaid program. Our goal is to reform Medicaid while protecting the needs of people and defining the appropriate role of government in helping to ensure access to adequate and affordable health care for all Nebraskans, within the fiscal constraints of our budget.

LB 709 reflects a sincere commitment on the part of the Executive and Legislative branches of state government to address this task, despite its immense size and complexity.

Introduced by Sen. Philip Erdman, LB 709 provides for reform efforts to moderate the growth of Medicaid spending, to ensure the sustainability of the Medicaid program for needy Nebraskans, to establish priorities and ensure flexibility in the allocation of Medicaid benefits, to examine the effects of changing economics and demographics and to offer alternatives to Medicaid eligibility.

Medicaid reform in Nebraska needs to be deliberate, meaning that it needs to be data driven.  We need to understand what the Medicaid program actually is and not just what we think it is.

In addition to that, Medicaid reform program needs to be deliberative.  Nebraskan's should all be participating in the discussion - thinking, exploring and suggesting ways that we can improve Medicaid.  We start by understanding it with the data and then we discuss it and we develop Nebraska-specific solutions to the problems that Medicaid is presenting today. 

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