More than 40 of the nation’s governors gathered in Washington over the last several days saying they want to make sure citizens don’t lose access to healthcare.
But sticking points, like block granting Medicaid, remain a key dividing point among the governors.
“We do not want one single one of our citizens to lose access to quality healthcare. I think we are all unified in that,” Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe said during a press conference on Monday.
McAuliffe is the chairman of the National Governor’s Association, which held its winter meeting in Washington this past weekend. A collection of 46 governors, the biggest to attend the meeting, met with President Trump on Monday and plan to meet with congressional leaders.
However, the governors made clear they have major differences about what comes next for Medicaid.
McAuliffe has tried multiple times to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act but has been thwarted by the GOP-controlled state legislature.
But other governors stressed they are taking a different approach to Medicaid.
“We did not expand Medicaid and many states are divided on the right approach to take under ACA,” said Utah Republican Gov. Gary Herbert. “We all have the same goals to make sure that people have access and most vulnerable among us have access to quality healthcare.”
Herbert’s position wasn’t different from other GOP governors at the meeting.
The governors met with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on Saturday.
A draft of GOP governors’ Medicaid proposal would give each state a financial limit instead of the current open-ended federal spending system, according to the Associated Press, which obtained a copy of the draft.
Congressional Republicans aim to release legislation this week or next that would repeal Obamacare. A leaked draft of the legislation dated Feb. 10 would gut the law’s Medicaid expansion.
Republicans are eyeing either revamping Medicaid via a block grant that gives a state a fixed amount or a per capita cap, which caps federal spending per beneficiary.
McAuliffe had concerns with both approaches.
With a block grant, McAuliffe was concerned about “what is the number and if we had a recession or the stock market went down, we at the state level will incur 100 percent of those costs.”
Regarding per-capita caps, McAuliffe said that the question is about the rate the federal government uses to dole out the funding.
Not all GOP governors were on board with a capped Medicaid system.
Republican Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval said that he was concerned about caps as, noting that his state has been growing fast and wondered how the formula for determining each state’s funding will be set.
Sandoval, who expanded Medicaid, said that his state has grown a lot and if the federal government sets the cap based on population from three years ago it would be hard for his state.
