Maine Officials Wrestle Over Options For Funding Medicaid Expansion
The referendum authorizing the state to move ahead on expanding the program for low-income residents did not include a provision for funding. News outlets also report on Medicaid developments in Montana, Louisiana, Mississippi and the District of Columbia.
Bangor (Maine) Daily News:
Attempt To Nail Down Maine Medicaid Expansion Costs Makes No Progress
Questions about how much expanding the state’s Medicaid program would cost took center stage Wednesday during the Legislature’s first discussion of last month’s referendum. But the budget committee meeting ended with no answers. ... At issue is the fact the voter-approved bill mandates expansion but includes no language about how to fund it. Proponents of the measure considered proposing raising the income tax to pay for expansion but opted to omit any funding mechanism from the signature drive that put the question on the ballot. (Cousins, 12/13)
The Associated Press:
Lawmakers Figuring Out How To Pay For Medicaid Expansion
Maine faces a July deadline for expanding Medicaid as lawmakers scramble to figure out exactly how much it will cost and how the state will pay for it. The Legislature’s appropriations committee met Wednesday to start coming up with an official estimate of the costs and savings of Medicaid expansion. So far, lawmakers have offered no ideas about how to pay for the expansion. (12/13)
Portland (Maine) Press Herald:
Lawmakers Begin Looking For Ways To Fund Maine’s Share Of Medicaid Expansion
[T]he state’s share of expanding the health insurance program for low-income residents is an estimated $60 million, and the budget surplus is expected to be only about $12.5 million at the end of the coming two-year budget cycle in June 2019. Lawmakers will get a revised budget forecast in April. ... Expansion would provide coverage to about 80,000 low-income residents – those earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $17,000 a year for a single adult and $22,412 for a two-person household. [Gov. Paul] LePage, a staunch opponent of Medicaid expansion, is unlikely to cooperate by quickly providing data needed to figure out how to fund the state’s share. (Thistle, 12/13)
MTN News:
Medicaid Expansion: The Big Impact Of Big Part Of Obamacare Going Strong In Montana
The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have begun chipping away at other elements of the ACA, but Medicaid expansion remains largely intact in the 31 states that chose to accept it, including Montana. The government-funded coverage is available to childless adults who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level – about $16,600 a year for a single person or $22,400 for a couple. However, state data show that nearly three-fourths of the people signing up for Medicaid coverage are earning less than 51 percent of the federal poverty level – a mere $6,000 a year. (Dennison, 12/13)
MTN News:
Native Americans, Low-Income Clinics Are Big Beneficiaries Of Medicaid Expansion
In the past 18 months, tribal health services on the Flathead Indian Reservation have added a physical therapist and more dental care, and will soon add a new clinic and new speech therapist. Anna Whiting Sorrell, a top health official for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, says the changes are largely linked to Montana’s 2016 expansion of Medicaid. Expanded Medicaid – a key part of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare” – has extended government-funded coverage to some 13,000 Native American adults statewide. More than 1,000 of them are in Lake County, enabling them to get the medical care they previously couldn’t afford, Whiting Sorrell says. (Dennison, 12/13)
New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Louisiana Lawmakers To Consider Medicaid Contracts For 4th Time
Louisiana's Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget will have another chance Thursday (Dec. 14) to approve $15.4 billion worth of Medicaid contracts that oversee health care for 1.6 million people in Louisiana. The agreements would span 23 months and start Feb. 1. ... Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration has tried and failed three times to get the contracts approved. They are worth a quarter of the state's operating budget and govern health care for 90 percent of the people who receive Medicaid in Louisiana.
(O'Donoghue, 12/13)
Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger:
Medicaid, Costs And Quality Of Care, Big Issue Of 2018 Legislative Session
Mississippi lawmakers are gearing up to address the sunset this legislative session of the state's heavily debated Medicaid program, which provides health insurance to more than 760,000 Mississippians. This tasks the Legislature with reauthorizing the Division of Medicaid through what's called the "Medicaid technical amendments bill." It's an opportunity for lawmakers to reexamine the program and make significant changes. (Wolfe, 12/13)
The Washington Post:
Judge Blasts District’s Handling Of Medicaid Contracts, Orders Reevaluation
The District government mishandled how it awarded lucrative contracts to manage care for Medicaid beneficiaries and must revaluate proposals by the end of January, an administrative law judge has determined. The ruling, written Nov. 30 but released Wednesday, comes in response to a protest filed with the Contract Appeals Board by MedStar, one of the region’s largest employers and operator of the city’s biggest hospital. It has implications for tens of thousands of Medicaid patients who were transitioning to a new company with a different network of doctors and specialists. (Nirappil, 12/13)