Senate GOP plans new attempt to reduce federal share of Medicaid expansion funding

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) believes he has a commitment from the White House and Senate GOP leadership to get another chance to repeal an expansion of Medicaid offerings — a controversial proposal that failed to make it in the final version of President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy package (Source: “Ron Johnson believes he will get ‘second bite of the apple’ on Medicaid cuts,” Politico, July 8).
 
“I think I pretty well have a commitment. They’re going to do that,” Johnson told reporters of the prospects that Republicans will reconsider a provision that would end the federal government’s 90% cost share of funding for new enrollees in states that expanded Medicaid under the Democrats’ 2010 health care law.
 
The proposal to roll back the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion was floated by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) as an amendment to the GOP megabill. That amendment, which was co-sponsored by Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), would have ended the 90% federal cost-share at the end of 2030. Afterwards, new enrollees would have seen their medical costs reimbursed by the federal government at rates as low as 50%.
 
The recently passed Ohio budget includes a trigger that would eliminate Medicaid expansion if the federal share is reduced below the current 90%.