Medicaid Expansion Briefing: What’s at Stake for States?

Following the Supreme Court’s decision this summer on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the nation’s governors and state leaders face the choice to participate or opt out of the Medicaid expansion. Currently, twelve states have decided to participate in the expansion, seven states have decided to opt out, and the remaining states have yet to announce their participation status. As state officials move forward with selecting an approach, a November 30 briefing examined the economic impact of expanding Medicaid to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

What will be the financial impact on states that expand their Medicaid programs? What role will the federal government play in financing the expansion? What will the expansion mean for providers on the ground level? If states don’t go forward with the expansion, what will it mean for the safety net population?

A distinguished panel of experts addressed these and related questions.

John Holahan, director of the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, and who has decades of experience analyzing Medicaid and state health policy, discussed his updated report on the Medicaid expansion and costs to states.

Krista Drobac, director of the health division at the National Governors Association highlighted the status of states on the expansion and discussed what’s under consideration as states move forward.

James Keeton, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, assessed what the expansion would mean at ground level from a provider’s perspective.

Deborah Bachrach, special counsel at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, and former Medicaid director and deputy commissioner of health for New York, discussed how various states are assessing the fiscal implications of the Medicaid expansion and also described New York’s approach to its expansion options.

Ed Howard of the Alliance and Diane Rowland of Kaiser moderated the discussion.

The event was sponsored by the nonpartisan Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Contact: Marilyn Werber Serafini or Beeta Rasouli 202/789-2300 mserafini@allhealth.org

Transcript

Full Transcript (Adobe Acrobat PDF)

Speaker Presentations

John Holahan Presentation (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
Deborah Bachrach Presentation (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
James Keeton Presentation (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
Krista Drobac Presentation (Adobe Acrobat PDF)

Event Details

Agenda (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
Speaker Biographies (Adobe Acrobat PDF)