Feds reject state's drug plan, Granholm says
WASHINGTON -- The gaping hole in Michigan's 2005 state budget just got $40 million bigger.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Monday that the Bush administration has rejected a plan that would have saved the state that much or more on the cost of prescription drugs for Medicaid recipients.

Granholm thought Michigan was on track to win federal approval until last Friday when Larry Reed, who oversees CMS' pharmacy services, said the Bush administration was going to deny Michigan's request to create a multistate purchasing pool.

The reason for the denial, according to state officials who sat in on the conference call, was that the state hadn't adequately followed federal procurement rules in designing its contracts with drug companies.

Yet as recently as two weeks ago, Michigan officials said Reed led them to believe that the only problem with their request was a minor disagreement over a few stray words in their contracts.

"We have leapt through every hoop that there has been to receive federal approval," said Bucholz. "This idea and concept we've proposed is really a market-based solution that the (Bush) administration claims to have a great deal of empathy for. I don't know why they'd turn it down."

Because they are a bunch of pricks, that's why.