Taxation & Estate Planning

Ohio vs. The Feds re Expanding Medicaid to Cover More Children

By Michael D. Bonasera, Esq.

According to this article in today’s NYT

“[t]he Bush administration is imposing restrictions on the ability of states to expand eligibility for Medicaid, in an effort to prevent them from offering coverage to families of modest incomes who, the administration argues, may have access to private health insurance. […] State officials in Louisiana, Ohio and Oklahoma said they had discovered the administration?s intent in negotiations with the federal government over the last few weeks.”

The new restrictions mirror those the administration placed on the State Children?s Health Insurance Program in August after states tried to broaden eligibility for it as well. Dennis G. Smith, the director of the federal Center for Medicaid and State Operations argued, ?[t]o be consistent and logical, you have to apply the criteria to Medicaid and CHIP[.]?

The federal government has leverage over states, because it pays a large share of the costs for Medicaid and the State Children?s Health Insurance Program, and states have to comply with federal standards to get federal money. The insurance program was created for children whose families have too much income to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance.

On Dec. 20, the Bush administration rejected a proposal by Ohio to expand Medicaid to cover 35,000 more Ohio children. Ohio now offers Medicaid to children with family incomes up to twice the poverty level, or about $41,000 a year for a family of four. The state had proposed increasing the limit to three times the poverty level, to about $62,000.

Ohio was accused of trying to get around the current policy that requires states to enroll 95 percent of eligible children below 200 percent of the federal poverty level before they could expand their programs, a criterion that many state health officials said would be impossible to meet.

Administration officials say government health programs start to ?crowd out? private insurance when they cover families with incomes from 250 percent to 300 percent of the poverty level

Who are we trying to help here?

Full post as published by The Ohio Trust & Estate Blog on January 04, 2008 (boomark / email).