Kentucky Republican Senators Don't Plan To Block $250M Allocated For Medicaid Funding

Though Republican lawmakers fought expansion of the low-income health program, it now covers over 400,000 Kentucky residents. State Senate leaders say they will wait for the new Medicaid plan of incoming Republican governor, Matt Bevin, who has said he wants to roll it back. Elsewhere, Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson stops an unfinished Medicaid enrollment system. And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is allowing states asking for Medicaid waivers to use money to provide housing for some who are ill and homeless.

Republican leaders of Kentucky's state Senate said Wednesday they will not block about $250 million in state spending needed to pay for the health insurance of more than 400,000 people on the state's expanded Medicaid program. Outgoing Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear used an executive order to expand Kentucky's Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act. Because the federal government paid for 100 percent of the first three years of the expansion, Beshear did not need to ask the state legislature for money to pay for it. But Senate Republicans, fearful of the eventual cost of the program, tried and failed at the time to prevent Beshear's actions. (Beam, 12/2)

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has directed the state Department of Human Services to hold off on adding to a Medicaid eligibility and enrollment system that already has doubled its expected cost. The unfinished system also has been blamed for delays in processing applications and reviewing the eligibility of those already enrolled. (Davis, 12/3)

Communities with big homeless populations are increasingly turning to a strategy known as housing first. The idea: Helping chronically homeless people to find a permanent home, and stay in it, is the best way to help them lead stable, healthy lives. Urban Ministries Center's leaders took a desolate area beyond Charlotte's Uptown and turned it into a supportive apartment community for people transitioning from homelessness. The approach has been used in cities like Chicago and Cleveland, as well as in several states, such as Massachusetts, Minnesota and Washington, as local nonprofits have worked to provide both housing and health care to homeless people. And it got an important endorsement in June, when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) told state Medicaid offices around the country that Medicaid dollars, usually reserved for clinical services and medications, could be used to help chronically homeless people and others with long-term disabilities to find and maintain permanent housing. (Ollove, 12/2)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

�鶹Ů��

Trump 2.0

Public Health

Audio Reports

Special Reports

More Topics