Medicaid Round Two: The Senate ’s Draft “Better Care Reconciliation Act Of 2017”

Although it differs in important details, the draft Medicaid provisions of the Better Care Reconciliation Act — the Senate’s version of Affordable Care Act “repeal and replace” —  share the vision of its House-passed counterpart, the American Health Care Act: to, as much as possible, shield the federal government from the cost of Medicaid. Like the House, the Senate would accomplish this goal by fundamentally altering the terms of Medicaid itself rather than by ending it and replacing its entitlement structure with a new, successor program as Congress did in 1996 when it replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Medicaid is far too complex, and the rules of reconciliation far too constrained, to permit the creation of a new program. Instead, both the House and Senate revise the terms of a law that states have relied on for over a half century to fund health care for the indigent, a basic function of all state governments. The Senate bill, like the House measure, will have massive financial consequences for states, regardless of whether a state has opted for the ACA Medicaid expansion or eschewed this choice. States that want to continue to qualify for federal Medicaid contributions – so vital not only to health care but to their overall economies as measured in employment and local economic activities — will have little choice but to make up the deficits created by legisla...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Featured Following the ACA Medicaid and CHIP Uncategorized ACA repeal and replace block grants Medicaid per capita cap Trumpcare Source Type: blogs