The Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee met Wednesday January 21st to discuss 7.5-15% budget cuts for FY2009 and FY2010 for both the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services. After much disagreement, the committee made a motion to accept the revised proposal from the Legislative Fiscal Analysts Office. The motion failed in the House and passed in the Senate.
First the committee listened to public comment then each agency spoke on the updated proposed budget cuts from the Legislative Fiscal Analyst Office. Dr. David Sundwall, Executive Director of the Department of Health expressed concern for the proposal to dissolve the Utah Health Department into other state agencies. Sundwall noted how during the Special Session he felt more included in the discussion, however now he feels like the cuts of 68% to the DOH are disproportionate. Rep. David Litvack had many issues with the “assumptions” that money could be saved by consolidating agencies to fill the void of the Department of Health. In addition, if the Utah Health Department is dissolved, Utah would be the only state in the country without a health department.
Similarly, Lisa-Michele Church, Executive Director of the Department of Human Services noted to the committee that a 7.5-15% budget cut, would result in large “paradigm shifts” regarding no longer receiving federal matching dollars and in how to run these programs with less employees.
Lastly, according the committees’ motion to accept the Legislative Fiscal Analysts’ proposed budget based cuts, funding for the Health Care Reform internet portal episodes of care analysis will be reduced in FY2009 and eliminated in FY2010. This could be detrimental to health care reform and individual’s ability to compare and shop for health insurance online.
