State Republicans insist the current Medicaid system must be reformed before they’ll consider expanding the program, to fulfill Governor Walker’s campaign promises.
Gov. Walker: “Only 22 other states have not accepted expanded Medicaid and here’s how that helps the cost of healthcare in Alaska: those, whatever thousands of numbers there are, those people receive medical care through the emergency room, and we pay for that on our premiums. So you want to lower the premiums in Alaska, start covering those 30 or 40,000 people that are receiving healthcare at our expense.”
Senate Finance Co-Chair Pete Kelly is introducing a bill this week to address Medicaid reform, but for now expansion isn’t included.
Kelly hasn’t ruled out expansion, but said the state first needs to address the current issues with Medicaid, including the troubled Xerox payment system.
On the House side, Homer Rep. Paul Seaton has been discussing the program in the Health and Social Services Committee. He explained…
Rep. Seaton(R-Homer): “Medicaid expansion was in addition to whether it was a federal or state exchange, because those were for people that made enough money to afford, even with subsidies. So there was a cut-off level, because they assumed that for those people who earn less than 138% of poverty, a subsidy wasn’t the right way to deal with that. It was to expand Medicaid and have the federal government pay the vast majority of that instead of the 50-50 split between the state and federal government.”
For the first three years, the federal government would cover 100% of Medicaid, then 95% and by 2020 it will go to a 90-10 split.