Republican governors' escalating campaign for Medicaid block grants has many implications for the healthcare system, according to a report by Kaiser Health News.
Under block grants, states would receive lump-sum payments and would be free to create their own policies, such as cutting coverage for children, pregnant women who meet specific income criteria and parents with dependent children, which is currently barred by the federal government.
GOP governors have been more aggressively pushing for block grants because of acute budget problems, the upcoming loss of enhanced federal subsidies for Medicaid programs in July and the prospect of having to cover 16 million more people under Medicaid in 2014.
However, the federal government will pick up the whole cost of the coverage expansion for the first three years, then reduce it to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond.
Such block grants were proposed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1995 and former President George W. Bush in 2003. Congress passed Mr. Gingrich's proposal but it was vetoed by former President Bill Clinton.
Congressional Republicans have not yet introduced such a proposal, but House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has drafted a block grants proposal with Alice Rivlin, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who was director of the Office of Management and Budget under Clinton.
Read the Kaiser Health News report on Medicaid.
Read more coverage on GOP governors' requests for Medicaid block grants:
- GOP Governors Criticize Reform Law for Stopping Deep Medicaid Cuts
- Arizona Senate Committee Votes to Drop out of Medicaid
- GOP Leaders Make Plans to Defund Reform, Cut Medicare, Medicaid
Under block grants, states would receive lump-sum payments and would be free to create their own policies, such as cutting coverage for children, pregnant women who meet specific income criteria and parents with dependent children, which is currently barred by the federal government.
GOP governors have been more aggressively pushing for block grants because of acute budget problems, the upcoming loss of enhanced federal subsidies for Medicaid programs in July and the prospect of having to cover 16 million more people under Medicaid in 2014.
However, the federal government will pick up the whole cost of the coverage expansion for the first three years, then reduce it to 90 percent in 2020 and beyond.
Such block grants were proposed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1995 and former President George W. Bush in 2003. Congress passed Mr. Gingrich's proposal but it was vetoed by former President Bill Clinton.
Congressional Republicans have not yet introduced such a proposal, but House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has drafted a block grants proposal with Alice Rivlin, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who was director of the Office of Management and Budget under Clinton.
Read the Kaiser Health News report on Medicaid.
Read more coverage on GOP governors' requests for Medicaid block grants:
- GOP Governors Criticize Reform Law for Stopping Deep Medicaid Cuts
- Arizona Senate Committee Votes to Drop out of Medicaid
- GOP Leaders Make Plans to Defund Reform, Cut Medicare, Medicaid