HHS Deal With Florida For Hospital Money Undercuts Pressure To Expand Medicaid
The Trump administration has promised to restore money for Florida hospitals that have high uncompensated costs for caring for people that could have been covered by a Medicaid expansion. In Ohio, the Legislature is considering cutting back the Medicaid expansion to gain support for a budget deal and delaying the governor's plan to move long-term care Medicaid patients to managed care plans.
The New York Times:
Florida Deal Would Reverse Key Part Of Obama’s Medicaid Expansion
The Trump administration appears to have scrapped one of the key tools the Obama administration used to encourage states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The shift involves funding that the federal government provides to help hospitals defray the cost of caring for low-income people who are uninsured. Under a deal with Florida, the federal government has tentatively agreed to provide additional money for the state’s “low-income pool,” in a reversal of the previous administration’s policy. The Obama administration balked at providing more money to help hospitals cope with the costs of “uncompensated care” for people who could be covered by Medicaid. (Pear, 4/30)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Ohio House Delays Medicaid Changes For Long-Term Care Patients
Ohio's nursing homes prevailed in the first round of state budget wrangling. When House Republicans this week revised the state budget bill, they yanked Gov. John Kasich's plan to move all long-term care Medicaid patients to managed care plans next year. The budget amendment blocks such a move until 2021, which was suggested by nursing homes, assisted living facilities, area agencies on aging and other groups working with long-term care patients. (Borchardt, 4/28)
Columbus Dispatch:
GOP Plan To Kill Ohio Medicaid Expansion May Fuel Drug Crisis
A House GOP plan to gut Ohio’s Medicaid expansion would severely undercut the state’s battle against the opioid epidemic, critics say. “This is absolutely the wrong way to go,” said Cheri L. Walter, executive director of the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities. ... In an apparent attempt to win conservative Republican votes for the proposed two-year state budget, the amendment essentially would kill the Medicaid expansion, which now provides tax-funded health insurance to more than 700,000 poor adults, many working in low-income jobs. (Candisky and Siegel, 4/29)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Unemployed Ohioans Would Lose Healthcare Coverage Under Proposed Changes To Medicaid Expansion
A new state budget proposal presented in the Ohio House of Representatives would limit the number of people eligible for Medicaid through the expansion. The proposed budget would only cover under the expansion those who are 55 or older or medically fragile, employed, enrolled in a workforce training program or a recovery program. (Christ, 4/28)