Do states regret expanding Medicaid? - Entrepreneur Generations

Congress has tabled efforts to repeal or replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which gives the 18 states that haven't expanded Medicaid time to consider whether to do so. "The ACA’s established funding will pay for 90 percent of the costs of expanding Medicaid to cover people in households with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Previously, these 18 states declined to expand, in part because of concerns about their ability to predict and afford their 10 percent share of the costs," Mark Hall reports for the Brookings Institution.

But with the ACA in its fifth year, states that didn't expand Medicaid can now see how it has performed in states that did expand. Hall curates a wide range of independent and government studies that seem to prove expanded Medicaid is a financial success, and that Republican governors in at least five expansion states (Arkansas, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Ohio) continue to support expansion. Some states that haven't already expanded Medicaid may be tempted to do so with Republican-friendly frills such as work requirements.

Medicaid is particularly critical to rural areas, though the low reimbursement rate for complicated obstetrical cases has contributed to many rural hospitals shuttering OB services and increased the risk to rural women and their babies.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2GZOyjd Do states regret expanding Medicaid? - Entrepreneur Generations

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