By Timothy Costa, Buchanan Government Relations Professional
The Republican-controlled Arkansas State Senate voted today to approve a plan that would allow the state to expand health insurance coverage through exchanges. http://bit.ly/XtIXIB The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave approval to Arkansas to use Medicaid dollars to purchase coverage through the Health Insurance Exchange after the Democratic Governor was unable to persuade the Republican legislature to expand the current Medicaid program. But there is a catch…
One week ago today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance that told states it’s permissible to use Medicaid dollars to expand coverage through Medicaid exchanges, but the benefits and cost sharing arrangements of Medicaid still applied. It also said the cost to expand through the exchange had to be “nearly equivalent” to the cost to expand otherwise. In other words, states have no additional flexibility whatsoever. It’s long been permissible to use Medicaid dollars to purchase private coverage (Pennsylvania’s HIPP program is an example of that).
While it was thought/hoped for that “Arkansas Plan” would be a new and innovative way for states to expand health care coverage, the recent guidance from the federal government made clear it is nothing of the sort.
Expand the current program or expand through the exchanges, but it has to look, feel and cost the same regardless of the road a state takes to get there.
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About Tim
Tim is a government relations professional with more than a decade of experience in state and federal affairs. Prior to joining Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, he was Executive Deputy Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, where he spearheaded the DPW’s Office of Program Integrity, which netted for the Commonwealth more than $300 million in savings in less than 15 months.