Cover: New York Battle Over Medicaid: Cutbacks Mirror the Nation’s Pain
In late January, New York Gov. George Pataki presented an austere budget plan aimed at closing the state’s gap without raising taxes. Among the items on his "hit list": a $1.9 billion cut in health care programs, including a $1 billion bite out of Medicaid. Not unexpectedly, the plan has touched off a firestorm of protest among providers and advocates for the poor.

Focus On: Florida Medicaid Workers Go the Extra Mile as Mentors
For the staff of Florida’s Area Six Medicaid office, commitment to the Tampa community goes beyond the nine-to-five work day within agency walls. Currently, 28 of the office’s 42 employees are volunteering as mentors at a total of 9 local schools, taking part in programs that are designed to help children learn and offering friendship to kids whose self-esteem may need a boost.

Public Health News:  Thinking Outside “the Silo”: States Seek Ways to Integrate Health, Human Services
With states facing chilling deficits—the aggregate projected total for FY 2004 is $53.5 billion, by NCSL’s count last month—legislators and program administrators are scrambling to find funds to continue providing essential services, from health care to child care to education and employment assistance, to their most-vulnerable constituents. To do so in the current budget climate, however, they may have to find a new way of thinking about the structure of the health and human services system and how it’s financed—even if that means trampling on toes protecting individual program turf.