Arizona

While the new Affordable Health Care law provides a variety of funding opportunities for states, one provision in the health law that could shift billions of dollars from cash-strapped states to the federal government.  Under the National Medicaid Drug Rebate Program created by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, drug manufacturers are required to enter into agreements that provide rebates for Medicaid purchased drugs, establishing a 15% minimum level of rebates.  Up until now, the rebates were divided between the states and the federal government.  But under the new health reform law, a significant portion of the rebates will go solely to Washington beginning this year.

Arizona's conservative Legislature made national headlines by passing a discriminatory, anti-immigrant bill, SB 1070.  Confronting one of the steepest budget shortfalls in the nation, the Legislature lurched from privatization schemes to attempting to completely eliminate its health care program for children.  Even as the state's economy remained in crisis, the legislative session was dominated by right-wing obsessions like banning the regulation of greenhouse gases, gun lobby priorities, attacks on ethnic study classes, and bans on embryo and stem cell research.  A few progressive initiatives like encouraging youth voting and transparency for local budgets were approved, but extreme right-wing posturing marred the session and failed to address the state's precarious economic and fiscal standing.