A joint legislative committee has scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider the legality of Governor Bill Walker’s plan to expand Medicaid in Alaska.
Mat-Su Senator Mike Dunleavy asked the State Legislative Council last week to consider initiating a lawsuit if the Governor continued in his plans to expand Medicaid without lawmaker participation.
Sen. Dunleavy(R-Mat Su): “The federal monies are simply a lost leader, an incentive program to bring more individuals into an entitlement program as a stepping stone to socialized medicine.”
Questions have been raised to whether the thousands of lower-income Alaskans who make-up the expansion population are a mandatory or optional group for Medicaid coverage.
The federal health care law expanded eligibility for Medicaid, but in 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court said states could not be penalized if they didn’t participate in expansion.
Some read the court’s decision as meaning the expansion population is optional, meaning legislative approval would be needed to add that expansion group.
In July Walker announced his plans to accept federal money for expanded Medicaid after lawmakers tabled his expansion bill during both of their special sessions.
He gave the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee a 45 day notice from the expansion announcement on July 16. The targeted rollout date is September 1.
That meeting will begin at 11:00 am Tuesday, August 18, at the Anchorage LIO.