Mar 3, 2017

House may let Medicaid expansion continue — for a while

The Wall Street Journal gives us a bit more clarity this morning on what House Republicans are planning for Medicaid expansion. They're likely to let states that expanded Medicaid keep the extra funding until Jan. 1, 2020, after which they'd start the transition to per-person limits on federal funding. And for states that didn't expand the program, they'd throw some extra money in for safety-net hospitals.

Between the lines: The 2020 transition is similar to what was already spelled out in the leaked draft of the House GOP bill, but it sheds some light on how the Republicans would handle their biggest problem: when to shift away from Medicaid expansion so people aren't immediately cut off from coverage.

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