Factoid of the Month
Catastrophic Health Care Cost Program (CAT Fund)
In 1982, legislation was enacted to establish the Catastrophic Health Care Cost Program. The program is designed as an insurance program for the counties to cover the cost of treatment for catastrophic illness suffered by county residents who have no means to pay for the cost of that care. The program picks up the additional medical costs of these residents once the counties' claim payments have exceeded $10,000 during a 12 month period. Legislation was enacted in 1991 to shift the program from county to state funding in FY 1994.
The cost of the program to the General Fund has grown from $9.8 million actual expenditures in FY 1998 to a budget request of over $18 million for FY 2007.
The chart below shows that, of the total claims paid in FY 2005, 19.9% or $6.5 million was expended for coronary care, 17.4% or $5.7 million for cancer, and 4.9% or $1.6 million for respiratory illnesses.
The Governor’s budget recommendation for FY 2007 funds the Catastrophic Health Care Fund from the Millennium Fund. In addition, the Governor recommends that the expenditures from the Millennium fund for the CAT Program be capped at $20,000,000. This allows the corpus of the Millennium Fund to continue to grow. When the cap is reached, the policymakers will need to determine the course of action needed to provide the additional funding required to continue to pay for indigent care.