Friday, July 11, 2014

Smoke and Mirrors: Obamacare Funding set to Plunge in 2015

Fasten your seat belts. Turbulence lies ahead for ObamaCare as funding streams for three programs are set to nose-dive.
Millions of children could lose coverage, and millions more insured via Medicaid or ObamaCare plans could have an even tougher time finding a doctor.
These funding cliffs weren't driven by policy but by politics: Provide short-term funding to get ObamaCare off the ground, then cut it off — at least on paper — to make the budget forecasts look better over 10 years.
Now, with the money set to dry up next year, a push has begun to save funding for all three programs at an annual cost approaching $13 billion.
The first bumps could be felt at the start of 2015, when the Affordable Care Act's boost in funding for Medicaid primary care doctors is set to expire.
The law temporarily provided funds to lift Medicaid's reimbursement rates, putting them on par with Medicare's for 2013 and 2014 at a cost of $11 billion.
With physician access already a worry before the Medicaid expansion, the boost in doctors' pay was meant to open doors for millions of new beneficiaries.
Medicaid's Funding Cliff
The prospect that Medicaid reimbursements will revert to about two-thirds of Medicare's rate raises concerns again as to what kind of access poor and near-poor patients will receive.
The White House has proposed spending an extra $5.4 billion in calendar-year 2015 to extend higher Medicaid reimbursements for primary-care doctors and broaden eligibility to include physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
Yet the chances that Republicans will agree to allocate more funds to ObamaCare look dim.
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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