President Obama is backing a bill in Congress to let states create their own ways to expand Medicaid coverage and to do it sooner than the healthcare reform law would allow, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
The president said states should be able to request waivers for implementing alternative Medicaid programs starting in 2014, three years earlier than the law allows. State Innovation Waivers, as they are called, allow states to propose and test alternative ways to meet the goals of healthcare reform. According to a news release from the White House, waivers may differ from policies as long as they:
• do not increase the federal deficit;
• provide coverage that is at least as comprehensive as the coverage offered through exchanges;
• make coverage at least as affordable as it would have been through exchanges;
• provide coverage to at least as many residents as the Affordable Care Act would have provided.
The secretaries of Health and Human Services and Treasury are responsible for evaluating SIW applications.
President Obama also said his administration would work with states to lower their Medicaid costs and called for a bipartisan group of governors to craft ideas. But the president’s offer did not seem to appease Republican governors at the meeting and few states are expected to apply for the waivers.
Read the Wall Street Journal report on Medicaid.
Read more coverage of states’ efforts to cut Medicaid costs:
– South Carolina Senate OKs $125M in Cuts to Physicians, Hospitals
– Arizona Senate Committee Votes to Drop out of Medicaid
– HHS Sec. Sebelius Will Allow Arizona to Cut 250K Medicaid Beneficiaries
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