State officials push to keep Medicaid expansion

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State Treasurer Joe Torsella fears the financial burden that eliminating Medicaid expansion could have on the commonwealth’s economy, while state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale cited the risk to hospitals and working families.

Medicaid blends federal and state funding to insure children and people with low incomes. With incentives from the federal government, Pennsylvania expanded its program in 2015.

The expansion loosened the qualifications for Medicaid, giving access to more working families, and increased the amount of federal dollars going to the program.

As a result of the changes, an estimated 675,000 Pennsylvanians gained access to health insurance, thousands of jobs were created and $3 billion in federal reimbursement flowed into Pennsylvania in 2016 – which has helped hospitals and health care centers.

Expansion also has been critical in the state’s bipartisan efforts to combat the opioid pain pill and heroin epidemic, DePasquale said.

Since 2015, 63,000 Medicaid patients have been treated for substance abuse disorder, and investing in treatment is a key effort undertaken by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration.

“This goes well beyond political rhetoric,” DePasquale said.

Eliminating expansion could reduce the state’s total economic activity by about $4.5 billion, and add at least $300 million to the state’s structural deficit, according to Torsella, a Democrat who was elected in 2016.

In addition, the end of expansion would shift costs for health care to other areas of the state’s budget, Torsella added.

“This is about math – not about party politics,” Torsella said.

The state-specific information shared on Monday by Torsella and DePasquale, also a Democrat, is similar to statistics released last week by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.

Data showing the negative impact of an ACA repeal without a replacement has been pouring out since last week when the House and the Senate approved a federal budget that would repeal select parts of the health care law.

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that called on federal agencies to do what they could to lessen the burden of the ACA.

Trump and other Republicans have also proposed changes to the country’s Medicaid program, such as allocating federal money to states in fixed lump-sum payments known as block grants, instead of the current system under which the federal government pays a portion of a state’s Medicaid expenses.

The idea is that the federal government will be spending less overall by switching to a fixed payment, and states will more carefully regulate Medicaid spending.

Gov. Wolf opposes the block grant plan, stating on Monday that it would “have a devastating impact for many Pennsylvanians.”

He promised to fight any attempt to cut coverage for those people, which include seniors getting nursing and home care, people with disabilities, children and those being treated for substance use disorder.