Many thanks to the organizations that joined us in
submitting a letter to
federal officials in opposition of Wisconsin’s request to waive maintenance of
effort provisions. These
provisions are so valuable to families because they preserve stability in
states’ Medicaid and CHIP programs.
Groups such as the AARP, American Heart Association, Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities, Families USA, First Focus, and the March of Dimes signed
on to voice their concerns on this issue.
I won’t go into too much detail about the waiver proposal
because our friend, Jon Peacock, from the Wisconsin Council on Children and
Families blogged about
the specifics of the waiver proposal, while cleverly comparing it to a triple
feature horror film. Some of the
proposals included:
* Increasing premiums to five percent of family income
for families with incomes above 150% of the FPL;
* Excluding eligibility for adults ages 19 to 26 above
100% of FPL if they could be covered on a parent’s employer sponsored plan; and
* Excluding adults from Medicaid with incomes above 100%
of the FPL and children with family income above 133% of the FPL if they
have access to employer coverage that costs less than 9.5% of their family
income.
According to Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau, just
by raising these premiums, 19,000 individuals, including 12,000 children, would
lose their Medicaid coverage. The
group letter stated that allowing these individuals to lose coverage would be
an inappropriate use of the Section 1115 waiver authority and be
unprecedented. Section 1115
waivers should promote the objectives of Medicaid and test innovative
approaches to provide health care to families in Medicaid. Waiving the maintenance of effort
protections would have the opposite effect.
Just from reading some of what’s been proposed, you can
see that Jon’s analogy of a horror film is pretty accurate. If these provisions were waived, this
would be frightening to families, to say the least.
We hope that HHS holds their ground on the maintenance of
effort waiver in Wisconsin.