Joint Health

Wednesday, January 28, 2026·3h 36m·▶ Watch / Listen

Over two days of SMART Act budget briefings, the Joint Health committee wrestled with a structural squeeze on Medicaid and federal HR1 fallout, as JBC members and department heads warned that provider-rate rollbacks, a 56-hour caregiver cap, and county-administration changes are on the table. No votes were taken, but the hearing turned raw during public testimony from families of medically complex children opposing the caregiver cap and DD-waiver enrollment slowdowns.

Key Actions

·Governor's budget presentation (JBC)Action

+ 17 more actions

Notable Quotes

“as I have shared with essentially everyone I've had meetings with about this budget, if you do not like the cuts proposed, you need to identify other cuts to make because there is no way out of this budget without cuts.”
Emily Sirota (JBC, member) · witness — Frames the JBC's core message that the Medicaid-heavy budget cannot be balanced without cuts.

+ 7 more quotes

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TranscriptPreview

Joint Senate Health and Human Services Committee will come to order. Mr. Brown, please call the roll. Senators and Representatives Barlon. Excused. Bradfield, Bradley. Good morning. Right. Excused. Carson. Excused. Cutter. Present. Doherty. Excused. English. Here. Faray. Excused. Frizzell. Excused. Amric. Here. Judah. Here. Johnson. Here. Leader. Present. McCormick. Here. Michaels and Gene. Present. Joint Senate Health Human Services Committee will come to order. Mr. Brown, please call the roll. Senators and Representatives Barlon. Present. Excused. Bradfield, Bradley. Good morning, English. What do we do? Wait a second. Excused. Frazelle. Excused. Amric. Here. Judah. Here. Johnson. Here. Leader. Present. Cormac. Here. Michaels and Gerdae. Present. Joint Senate Health Human Services Committee. Order. Mr. Brown, please call the roll. Senators and Representatives Polon. Present. Excused. Bradfield, Bradley. I'm still here, right, English? Yeah, I know. You did write in, huh, Stuart? Oh, we haven't started. Yeah, we're still new. Excused. Weissman. Excused. Woog. Here. Gilchrist. Present. Mr. Chair. Malika. Here. Let the record reflect Representative Baron is with us, seeing no one else. We do have JBC members here with us who would like to start us off. Representative Sirota. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hello, Joint Health. I believe this is…

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