"Sen. Tom Carper, a member of the Finance Committee, voted to pass the bill Oct. 13. Though the Delaware Democrat worked extensively on shaping the legislation, he did not propose an amendment to address what he now describes as "a basic inequity."
"I don't think it was on my radar screen," he said Friday."He helped "shape the legislation", but didn't read or comprehend that intentionally obfuscated language? Maryland is also one of the "expansion" states.
Proposal in Senate would make state pay bigger share of Medicaid
WASHINGTON -- Before health care reform dominated debate on Capitol Hill, Delaware and several other states worked aggressively to increase the number of low-income residents covered by Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor.
Now, those efforts could hurt them, sticking them with an uneven share of the bill for expanding Medicaid under one reform proposal.
The health care bill the Senate Finance Committee approved last month would expand Medicaid coverage to people earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. But states such as Delaware that already have significantly increased eligibility for Medicaid would get less financial help from the federal government than states that haven't.
Under the Finance Committee bill, "expansion states" that already cover people earning at least 100 percent of the poverty level ($22,050 for a family of four), would start off in 2014 getting 10 percent less in federal assistance than other states. The differential would narrow over five years and disappear in 2019.
The 18,000 new Medicaid recipients would cost the state an additional $21 million in fiscal 2014, according to state estimates.
At a time when state governments are facing budget shortfalls, some say their states shouldn't be penalized for being progressive.
"We feel it's unfair to the states that have really gone out on a limb and expanded Medicaid coverage to more individuals," said Rosanne Mahaney, acting director of the Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance. "It's almost punishing the states that have gone beyond what's required."
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Maryland is in a somewhat similar situation. The bill forces the state to expand Medicaid and the feds will pay for most, but not all, of that expansion. And there's always the possibility that the federal payment rate will decline in the final bill as a way to cut the bill's overall cost.
ReplyDeleteEither way, Maryland taxpayers will be on the hook for more Medicaid spending. We are already facing huge state deficits for the next few years. This federal "reform" bill will only increase those deficits.
People are quick to crucify elected officials for how they vote on something before they bother to find out WHY they voted the way they did.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it only takes one little sentence to make them change the way they vote on any particular issue.
If the feds want it let them pay for it.
ReplyDelete