9th Circuit reinstates California's cuts to disability funding

A federal appeals court on Wednesday reinstated a California law cutting Medicaid funds for the developmentally disabled.
Reversing a lower court ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed California to freeze its Medicaid reimbursement rates for 2009-2010 and subsequent years.
A group of trade associations representing facilities for the mentally and developmentally disabled sued the California Department of Health Care Services to block the freeze this past April. They argued that the state had violated the federal Medicaid Act by implementing the cuts without first obtaining approval from the federal government. The trade groups sued under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act, which allows citizens to sue if deprived of their rights.