Medicaid And The Latest Version Of The BCRA: Massive Federal Funding Losses Remain

Where Medicaid is concerned, the most notable thing about the latest version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) is that despite the drama of the past two weeks—the flood of news coverage regarding the potential impact of the losses; mounting concerns raised by Senators from expansion and non-expansion states alike; and the massive outcry from hospitals, physicians, insurers, and health care organizations—the new iteration leaves untouched the fundamental Medicaid contours of the earlier version. The new draft retains the federal funding bar for Planned Parenthood (§ 123) as well as the earlier version’s limit on states’ ability to fund their programs through lawful, broad-based provider taxes (§ 131). The new bill does virtually nothing to lessen the financial losses to states that will flow from the prior iteration. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), these losses would surpass $770 billion over 10 years as a result of provisions that eliminate the enhanced funding for the adult expansion population and superimpose flat annual growth restrictions on Medicaid’s historic federal funding formula (§124 and §132). By 2036, CBO reports, federal Medicaid funding would be about 35 percent below current law, a catastrophe of epic proportions. According to one study that sought to translate BCRA’s Medicaid provisions into state-by-state loss estimates, California alone would lose between $37 and $52 billion between 2020 and 2027, depen...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Featured Following the ACA Medicaid and CHIP Public Health ACA repeal and replace BCRA emergency response Source Type: blogs