Melancon, Vitter clash over fed’s Medicaid fix

In what may be the first jab in the 2010 Louisiana Senate race, Rep. Charlie Melancon charged that Sen. David Vitter is not standing up for the people of Louisiana. Vitter has declined to come out in support of an amendment to the health care reform bill that would give the state $300 million to help fix the state’s looming Medicaid crisis.

The amendment was added at the request of Sen. Mary Landrieu, but Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has proposed another amendment to strip that money from the bill. Melancon will be challenging Vitter for his seat in next year’s election.

“This man cannot stand up for what’s good for the state of Louisiana,” said Melancon. “I think it’s ironic that now, all of the sudden he’s torn between his allegiance to his friends and his allegiance to Louisiana.”

Vitter has not made a definitive statement yet as to whether or not he’ll support the amendment.

“Sen. Vitter is holding off judgment specifically on the Coburn amendment until it comes forward for an actual vote,” said Vitter’s spokespoerson Joel Digrado. “More importantly, he finds it extremely offensive that it is being used to buy votes for this government takeover of health care.”

Landrieu’s amendment would help to fix a major budget shortfall in next year’s Department of Health and Hospitals budget. Next year the state’s Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage, or FMAP, is slated to increase and exacerbate last years’ budget shortfall. As a critical swing vote, Landrieu finagled language into the senate bill that would take hurricane recovery money out of the formula used to determine the state’s Medicaid reimbursement rate, and keep the percentages near their current level.

Melancon voted against the House’s version of the Health Care Reform bill, and was unable to add similar language to the bill.

“We went in on many occasions during the process trying to get as blue dogs and the Louisiana delegation to get something put into the House bill, and we were unsuccessful on all attempts,” said Melancon. “That’s one of the problems I had with the legislation.”

Although Vitter has not come out against the amendment, he also was not sure that the amendment would fix Louisiana’s health care woes.

“Sen. Vitter has worked with the entire Louisiana delegation to find an FMAP fix, but the best analysis he has received is that the language in the Reid bill is not a complete fix,” Digrado said.

Melancon also accused Vitter of failing to adequately represent his constituents.

“If the senator for the state that’s affected will not stand up in front of the senate and say that I need your help to help the people I represent, that’s just wrong,” he said. “This time I think he’s taken the wrong issue, and shown that he’s not there for the people of the state of Louisiana.”