Cutting from those who need it most

How do you study-break?

Do you eat junk food? Read trashy magazines about TomKat's bundle of joy? Eat junk food while reading trashy magazines about TomKat's bundle of joy? Or eat TomKat's bundle of joy while reading about junk food?

If you answered yes to any of the above, feel no shame. Because the mainstream press eats up celeb gossip, too. They pour over every politician's tax filing as you would a new shot of K-Fed's infidelity. And they'd have you believe K-Fed's not that repugnant, by comparison.

Take Gov. Rendell's 2005 tax filing. The media have been all over this baby, scrutinizing every payment and expenditure. And they don't like what they see. Apparently, Rendell received $15,000 from Comcast to work on Eagles post-game shows last year. And $20,000 from Penn to teach one fall-semester course.

And this is bad.

It's bad because Rendell doesn't need the money, wrote Philadelphia Daily News columnist John Baer. It's bad because the average Pennsylvanian worker made less than $40,000 last year. And it's bad because such payments make Rendell look just plain sketchy.

Comcast, for instance, lobbied for a 15-year tax-free deal and ultimately received $42.7 million in state grants for its new Philly office. And Rendell proposed giving $46 million to Penn in his 2007 budget.

"It might not be favoritism," Baer wrote, "but it sure looks that way."

I'm not so sure. Baer, himself, acknowledged that Rendell doesn't keep the money from Comcast and Penn -- he donates it. And Rendell's proposed 2007 budget only increases Penn's overall appropriation by three percent.

Meanwhile, Rendell's budget would significantly reduce funding to the University of Pennsylvania Hospital System. And to me, that's the real issue here. Because more than any post-game payments, the cuts threaten Pennsylvania's poor.

Rendell has proposed more than $380 million in cuts to Medicaid beneficiaries and hospitals across the state. Medicaid affords health insurance to those who can't afford healthcare; about 1.7 million low-income individuals are enrolled in Pennsylvania alone.

Now, every state has had to deal with ballooning Medicaid costs in the past few years as enrollments grew when the economy slowed down. So, taken together, Rendell's cuts seem understandable. But a few of the cuts save the state little while hurting the poor a lot.

That's where Penn's hospital system comes into play. Every year, it receives "disproportionate share" payments from the state for serving many Medicaid and uninsured patients. Regular Medicaid covers 70 percent of hospital costs, so disproportionate share payments are critical. And Rendell proposed slashing them in half.

That cut would save the state $13 million, while it could cost Penn's hospital system $15 million a year, when combined with other reductions. Indeed, Penn really does serve a disproportionate share of Medicaid patients.

Nearly one of every seven Medicaid patients in Philadelphia is treated at a University hospital, according to Penn Medicine, a University publication. More than 250 Medicaid patients are treated by Penn physicians every day. And Penn carries a huge charity care debt -- $134 million in 2005.

"We deserve this payment by all stretches of how one would calculate it," UPHS spokeswoman Susan Phillips said.

She cited the neonatal intensive-care unit and obstetrics as two areas that Rendell's cuts would especially hurt. Medicaid accounts for more than 46.5 percent of University hospital deliveries, according to Penn Medicine. And University hospitals care for 70 percent of all Medicaid cases involving pregnant mothers and newborns needing intensive care in West Philly.

That won't change, whether the state pays or not.

When a pregnant mother comes in needing care, Penn will serve her first and ask questions second, Phillips said. If someone enters the emergency room with a bullet wound, the hospital won't -- can't -- refuse care.

But Rendell's proposed cuts will effectively penalize Penn economically for handling such cases --which are endemic to West Philly.

"It's perverse," Phillips said. "It's totally perverse."

The state legislature and Senate have until June 30 to agree upon a budget. Until then, Phillips will lobby Harrisburg to reinstate the disproportionate share payments. If she's successful, Penn won't have to worry about providing care to those who need it most.

On the other hand, if the cuts stay, next year's budget will stand as a document of social scandal. A document so slimy, it might just make K-Fed look clean by comparison.

And no one wants that.

Gabriel Oppenheim is a College freshman from Scarsdale, N.Y. Opp-Ed appears on Fridays.

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