With ACA Repeal, Is Medicaid’s Role as Public Insurance Over?
<p>The Republican House policy brief released last week provides the first inklings of an Affordable Care Act (ACA) replacement plan. In a new <em>To the Point</em> post, George Washington University’s Sara Rosenbaum finds that if the replacement legislation tracks the policy brief’s proposals, it would likely not only dramatically cut federal funding but also extinguish Medicaid’s guarantee of coverage for <em>all </em>Medicaid beneficiaries—not just the 11 million covered as a result of the ACA’s eligibility expansion.</p><p>“For over a half-century Medicaid has functioned as health insurance, meaning that, in a manner similar to private insurance, Medicaid establishes a legal guarantee of coverage for identifiable benefits and services,” Rosenbaum writes. But under the proposal, she says, states could cut services or even eliminate Medicaid’s basic guarantee of coverage for people who meet eligibility requirements.</p>
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2017/feb/medicaid-role-as-public-insurance Read the post