Governors Unified In Wariness Of Expanded Medicaid Eligibility

Governors Unified In Wariness Of Expanded Medicaid Eligibility in Politics and Legislation

This weekend, the nation’s governors convened in Mississippi to talk about the imminent health insurance and federal health care reform bill and how it will affect the states.

The biggest concern for governors after the meeting was a provision that would increase eligibility for Medicaid, reported The New York Times.

In the reform bill that’s being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives, Medicaid would be expanded to accept Americans who earn 133 percent of the federal poverty level, along with newborn babies who have no other insurance coverage.

While the increase seems to be minimal compared to say, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), it still would add an estimated 11 million people onto the federal budget.

And according to the Congressional Budget Office, that adds $438 billion in spending over the next 10 years.

Governors of both parties are very concerned about this as most of them are going through tight budget constraints themselves. If this Medicaid expansion were to happen, governors are worried most of the cost responsibility will lie with the states.

“We can’t have the Congress impose requirements that we are forced to absorb beyond our capacity to do so,” said Republican Vermont Governor Jim Douglas.

Even Democratic governors were concerned about this provision.

“There’s a concern about whether they have fully figured out a revenue stream that would cover the costs, and that if they don’t have all the dollars accounted for it will fall on the states,” said Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr., who is a Democrat.

Comments[0]