The Associated Press reports that another Arizonan died after state lawmakers cut off transplant funding last year:
A leukemia patient's death probably could have been avoided if Arizona hadn't suspended Medicaid coverage for some transplants for six months, a transplant doctor says.Dr. Jeffrey Schriber said 31-year-old James Johnson of Phoenix likely could have obtained a bone-marrow transplant within weeks late last fall were it not for the coverage cutoff that began Oct. 1 under a state budget cut approved earlier last year.
The state Medicaid program retroactively restored coverage retroactively to April 1 on Thursday, a day after Gov. Jan Brewer signed a new state budget Wednesday evening.