Bloodbath

We knew it was going to be rough, but wow.

The health and human services portion of the proposal would cut Medicaid provider rates — what doctors and hospitals and others are paid — by 10 percent. And it doesn’t include funding for population growth or for increased costs or utilization rates. There’s also a $4.3 billion cut included to account for the federal stimulus money used in the current budget that’s not available for the next budget. The proposal would cut a total of $16.1 billion in health and human services spending. That’s a 24.6 percent cut.