Storm-battered Puerto Rico would receive an extra $1 billion for its Medicaid program under a House GOP bill to renew a critical insurance program for children.
Storm-battered Puerto Rico would receive an extra $1 billion for its Medicaid program under a House GOP bill to renew a critical insurance program for children.
Unlike the states, Puerto Rico receives a limited amount of federal money for Medicaid, the insurance program for the poor, so it risks running out of funds.
That’s especially true amid a crisis, such as last year’s spread of mosquito-borne Zika virus and the recent arrival of Hurricane Maria, which wiped out power on the island and decimated its infrastructure.
Puerto Rico is set to exhaust its Medicaid funding by April, so the House Energy and Commerce Committee wants to provide an additional $880 million for use between now and the end of 2019.
It would free up another $120 billion if the island’s fiscal oversight board certifies that Puerto Rico Medicaid has taken steps to eliminate fraud or rein in excessive spending.
Efforts to avert a Medicaid funding “cliff” are taking on new urgency in the wake of Maria. President Trump is touring the territory Tuesday and meeting with local leaders and residents.
The new House bill would free up $880 million for use between now and the end of 2019. It would make an additional $120 billion if the island’s fiscal oversight board certifies that Puerto Rico Medicaid has taken steps to eliminate fraud or rein in excessive spending.
The proposed Medicaid boost — the Republican-led Congress’ first offer of relief to Puerto Rico since the storm hit — is part of a broader bill to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for five years.
Federal funding for CHIP, which provides health coverage to roughly 9 million children whose parents earn too much for Medicaid, lapsed over the weekend, though states aren’t expected to run out of money until December at the earliest.
Aides say the GOP’s last-gasp push to replace Obamacare with state block grants before the end of September diverted attention from CHIP.
Democrats have called on Congress to renew the program and help Puerto Rico, though the House GOP bill pays for the package with a series of controversial offsets, such as redirecting $5.5 billion from Obamacare’s public health and prevention fund to community health centers and forcing wealthy Medicare recipients to pay more.
It would also shorten the grace period for Obamacare customers who fail to pay their premiums from 90 days to 30. Cutting off their coverage sooner would save money, Republicans say, because taxpayers wouldn’t have to keep paying exchange subsidies and cost-sharing payments for the delinquent customers.
House Democrats are likely to balk at cuts to other health programs to pay for the CHIP reauthorization.
“While bipartisan negotiations have been ongoing, the legislation offered last night by Chairman [Greg] Walden is not a bipartisan agreement,” a spokesman for Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said.
The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to mark up its own CHIP bill on Wednesday. The legislation largely mirrors the House bill but doesn’t include money for Puerto Rico, so lawmakers will have to work out the differences.
