Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
If GOP Plan Passes, Some States Will Likely End Medicaid Expansion Early
Some states would likely end their Medicaid expansions earlier than 2024 if the Senate GOP鈥檚 healthcare bill becomes law, according to several sources.聽That dynamic could deepen concerns among several senators who are undecided about the healthcare bill because of its changes to Medicaid, the federal-state healthcare program for the poor and disabled. (Roubein, 7/16)
Federal Medicaid funding could聽drop by as much as 39 percent over the next two decades under Senate Republicans' healthcare plan, according to a report presented at the National Governors Association meeting. The report, authored by the consulting firm Avalere Health and聽first reported by Politico, estimates that the GOP's plan to overhaul large parts of the country's healthcare system would offer deep cuts to Medicaid, ranging from 27 to 39 percent. (Greenwood, 7/15)
Provider revenue would take a sizable hit under the latest version of the Senate's bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a new report found.鈥 The revised Better Care Reconciliation Act, released yesterday, retains the caps on Medicaid spending and rollback of the Medicaid expansion afforded to states' most vulnerable populations. A Congressional Budget Office review of the original bill estimated that 22 million people would lose coverage by 2026. (Kacik, 7/14)
Though the revised American Health Care Act includes changes that could woo Republican moderates and聽opponents enough to support the legislation, many veterans and mental health advocates say it still would jeopardize benefits for millions of veterans. Specifically, they oppose the steep cuts to Medicaid, which they argue about 1.75 million veterans and some 600,000 family members depend on to supplement benefits not provided by the VA. The revised version, released Thursday, still aims to cut some $800 billion in Medicaid benefits and faces opposition from enough Senate Republicans to put the passage of the bill at risk. (Lowary, 7/16)
This Republican plan to repeal and replace the ACA would phase out Medicaid expansion and cut federal Medicaid payments to states so that many might have to reduce eligibility or certain benefits, such as mental health and addiction services. Proposed reductions to Medicaid, coupled with state budget cuts under consideration, concern mental health advocates. (Werth, 7/17)
Bucktail Medical Center, a one-story building on the outskirts of town, doubles as the local nursing home. It has two emergency-room bays, 21 acute-care beds, one physician on hand at any given time, and an ever-precarious bottom line. At a larger hospital, the nursing director鈥檚 list of duties would employ five people. Officials here are still saving up to buy their first CT scanner.聽And as the GOP鈥檚 health-care bill winds its way through Congress, the staff is watching with bated breath. Like many other rural hospitals known as 鈥渃ritical-access hospitals,鈥 it relies heavily on federal funding from Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements 鈥 for Bucktail, which has a $6 million operating budget, it鈥檚 nearly 80 percent of its聽revenue. (Whelan, 7/16)
For all the uncertainty over the fate of a health care overhaul in Washington, tens of thousands of Montana's working poor are already in a double quandary: Even if Congress leaves Medicaid expansion mostly intact, the future of the state's program remains uncertain. (Calvan, 7/17)
The expansion of Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has increased Michigan's Medicaid rolls by 29%聽from 1.9 million residents in April 2014聽to 2.5 million residents in May 2017.聽聽Statewide, 1 out of 4 Michigan residents is聽enrolled in Medicaid. Medicaid has expanded as part of the ACA in 32 states and the District of Columbia. The expansion simplified聽eligibility requirements and聽expanded income eligibility to 133% of the poverty level, $16,000 for a聽single person or about $33,000 for a family of four. (Tanner, 7/14)
Somewhere in California, one child鈥檚 medical expenses in 2014 totaled $21 million 鈥 a bill covered entirely by Medi-Cal, the state鈥檚 version of Medicaid. The child鈥檚 condition is not known. But the cost of care was mentioned in recent Twitter and Facebook posts by Jennifer Kent, head of the state Department of Health Care Services, which runs Medi-Cal. (Karlamangla, 7/16)
The largest assisted-living facility for Medicaid recipients in Texas is voluntarily shuttering after years of budget deficits and as residential developers clamor for real estate in the nation's seventh fastest-growing city, the owner confirmed Friday. (Schmall, 7/14)
More than 200,000 Virginians will be impacted by a new Medicaid program that starts Aug 1. The Virginian-Pilot reports that the program will move many people with complex medical issues from a 鈥渇ee for service鈥 system to a managed care format. (7/17)
On Thursday, Republicans in the U.S. Senate released a revised draft of a healthcare bill that, again, proposes deep reductions in Medicaid funding. As the plan stands, published reports show, the hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid in the revised plan are similar to those in an earlier draft of the plan GOP senators released in late June. (Caniglia and Corrigan, 7/17)