Reprinted here:
Virginia legislators have little time to prescribe ways for the U.S. Senate to cure pending health care legislation they said could be harmful to the state’s Medicaid program and budget.
A new legislative subcommittee heard Wednesday that it has until mid-June to produce recommendations for the Senate to consider in producing a better substitute for the Affordable Care Act than the legislation the U.S. House of Representatives recently adopted.
Rachel Bevins Morgan, senior director of the health and human services committee for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said the leaders of a key U.S. Senate committee are looking to state legislators for alternatives to the American Health Care Act and its proposed per capita cap on federal Medicaid funding to states.
“You know better than anyone else what your restrictions are here — what would just totally devastate your program and what would be livable measures,” Morgan told the Joint Subcommittee for Health and Human Resources Oversight at its first meeting at the Capitol.
The General Assembly created the new subcommittee this year to quickly respond to actions by President Donald Trump and Congress to “repeal and replace” the health care law then-President Barack Obama signed in 2010. Its members did not know they would have to act so quickly to help reshape legislation that Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration estimates would cost the state $708 million over seven years by capping federal Medicaid spending in Virginia.
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