New York and Minnesota will receive nearly $500 million from the federal government this year related to lost funding for its healthcare programs, according to The Washington Post.
Five things to know:
1. New York and Minnesota sued the Trump administration over lost funding for their basic health programs. Under the ACA, states may create basic health programs to provide coverage for low-income residents who are not eligible for Medicaid. The states' basic health programs combined cover about 822,000 people.
2. The federal government has financed basic health programs. The government has paid 95 percent of the funds that would have gone toward subsidies to offset premium increases for plans on the ACA exchanges and toward cost-sharing reduction payments that helped insurers subsidize the coverage cost for low-income Americans, according to the report.
3. However, the Trump administration said in October that it would stop funding cost-sharing reduction payments. This reduced federal funding for New York and Minnesota's basic health programs, and the states sued in January, according to the Post.
4. In May, the case settled after the government agreed to work with Minnesota and New York on a new funding formula for their programs, as well as make an interim payment of $151 million to New York and $17.2 million to Minnesota, the report states. According to the report, revised payment amounts have now been finalized by CMS. The agency's administrative order, posted last week, announces the federal government will pay $422,206,235 "in additional payment to New York for the first, second and third quarters of 2018" and $46,276,090 to Minnesota for the same period.
5. An HHS spokesperson told the Post: "Last week's administrative order was issued following an opportunity for the two states to review and comment on a draft of the revised payment methodology. CMS believes that the administrative order — and the forthcoming payments to the states — should fully address the concerns raised by the states in the litigation."
Read the Post's full report here.
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