Yesterday, the federal government announced that the federal government will not provide 100% funding for states that do not participate in the full Medicaid expansion contained in PPACA, as described by the Washington Post. Partial expansions will be permitted but will only receive matching federal money at the existing rate, at least for 2014-2017.
As we covered earlier, the Supreme Court ruled this summer that states could choose whether to participate in the expansion of Medicaid contained in PPACA without jeopardizing their current Medicaid funding. Under PPACA, states that participate in the full expansion set out in PPACA (increasing eligibility to include families with incomes at or below 138% of the federal policy level) get 100% of the cost of caring for the additional enrollees paid for by the federal government for 2014-2017.
Until yesterday, there was no clear answer on whether this increased funding would be available for states that expanded eligibility to some level less than 138%. Reactions to yesterday’s announcement have been mixed. Supporters of broad Medicaid expansion approve of the decision as a means to encourage states to participate in the full expansion program, as noted in the Wall Street Journal. As reported by the Associated Press, the Republican Governor’s Association calls the decision is “disappointing,” as several states have indicated interest in only a partial Medicaid expansion due to budget constraints.
