* The Cumberland County Commissioners sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey warning against any attempts by Republican senators to roll back expanded Medicaid benefits. The growth of Medicaid access has “proven to be especially crucial as our county struggles to respond to the current opioid epidemic,” the commissioners wrote.
* Toomey is one of a group of GOP Senators currently working on revisions to the American Health Care Act, the bill passed earlier this year by the House of Representatives as a so-called “repeal and replace” measure to reform the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. One of the biggest criticisms of the AHCA is the proposed rollback of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which saw the federal government shoulder the bulk of the cost if states agreed to expand their medical assistance programs beyond the poverty line.
* Eliminating the Medicaid expansion “would have a huge negative impact on counties, especially when it comes to our mental health and drug and alcohol services and our ability to finance them,” commented Commissioner Jim Hertzler. The commissioners’ letter concludes by stating that the Medicaid expansion “has given our county a fighting chance” in the opioid addiction crisis, and implores Toomey to “make sure it continues to be part of our healthcare system.”
Carlisle Sentinel: Cumberland County commissioners ask Toomey to keep Medicaid expansion in Senate health bill
By Zack Hoopes
The Cumberland County Commissioners sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey warning against any attempts by Republican senators to roll back expanded Medicaid benefits.
The growth of Medicaid access has “proven to be especially crucial as our county struggles to respond to the current opioid epidemic,” the commissioners wrote.
According to national reports, Toomey is one of a group of GOP Senators currently working on revisions to the American Health Care Act, the bill passed earlier this year by the House of Representatives as a so-called “repeal and replace” measure to reform the Obama-era Affordable Care Act.
One of the biggest criticisms of the AHCA is the proposed rollback of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which saw the federal government shoulder the bulk of the cost if states agreed to expand their medical assistance programs beyond the poverty line. In Pennsylvania, Medicaid is now offered to all citizens making 138 percent or less of poverty income.
Since 2015, when Pa.’s expansion began, 12,240 Cumberland County residents have gained insurance through Medicaid. Further, 2,359 of those patients have used the county’s mental health and substance abuse services, and 619 have used those services specifically for opioid addiction, according to data from the Cumberland-Perry Drug and Alcohol Commission.
If the Senate were to pass the AHCA as written by the House, those patients would likely lose Medicaid coverage, as Pennsylvania would be unable to pay to keep them insured without federal funding.
This would put the county in the lurch to pay for county-administered treatment completely out of the county’s general fund, without Medicaid reimbursement. Prior to 2015, the county often had to cut off service after its budget ran dry.
“If our state had not opted into MA [medical assistance] Expansion, our county drug and alcohol department would certainly not have been able to cover the cost of treatment for those low-income county residents with the limited, capped funds we manage,” the commissioners wrote.
“Prior to the MA Expansion, funds earmarked for rehabilitation and halfway house services were usually exhausted partway through the fiscal year,” the letter continued.
Cost
The total cost of services for the Medicaid expansion population in Cumberland County was $8.4 million over the past two years, of which $3.1 million was related to opioid treatment, according to figures from the drug and alcohol commission.
The elimination of the Medicaid expansion would allow Republicans to repeal the Obama-instituted surtax on investment income that funded the expansion. According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, this would give a $346 billion tax break to high-value investors and the financial services industry over the next ten years, an important part of the GOP’s deregulation agenda.
But for county governments, this argument is a moot point — at the same time taxes are being cut at the federal level, the local level is faced with either the impact of increased taxes, or cuts to vital services.
Further, the county’s ability to raise money to backfill federal reductions is limited, given that the county has a much narrower scope of taxing powers than state or federal authorities. The only sure-fire method is to raise property tax rates, which are already a subject of concern.
Eliminating the Medicaid expansion “would have a huge negative impact on counties, especially when it comes to our mental health and drug and alcohol services and our ability to finance them,” commented Commissioner Jim Hertzler.
The commissioners’ letter concludes by stating that the Medicaid expansion “has given our county a fighting chance” in the opioid addiction crisis, and implores Toomey to “make sure it continues to be part of our healthcare system.”
Read the article here.