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Don’t hold your breath for more Medicaid funds
August 4th, 2010
A note to state legislators holding their breath for additional Medicaid funds: Don’t come up for air just yet.
Senate Democrats on Monday were forced to table legislation providing states with six additional months of emergency Medicaid funding after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined that the cost of the larger $26 billion package — including $10 billion for state education programs — wasn’t fully offset.
Democrats had scaled back the Medicaid provision, from $24 billion to $16.1 billion, by phasing out the boost in the federal share over the first half of 2011. The current 6.2 percent increase in Medicaid’s federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) — passed as part of last year’s stimulus bill — expires at the end of 2010. The Democrats’ plan would provide a 3.2 percent FMAP bump in the first quarter of 2011, and a 1.2 percent hike in the second quarter.
Senate leaders expect to vote for cloture on a revised (i.e., fully paid-for) proposal on Wednesday.
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