'Five States Allow Women's Health Medicaid Programs To Lapse'

NPWF RepreWatch

Featured Blog: 'Five States Allow Women's Health Medicaid Programs To Lapse'

Regulation's "RegBlog": Molozanov writes that the expiration of some Medicaid waiver programs at the end of 2014 means that "[w]omen in five states" -- Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Oregon and Pennsylvania -- "may be without affordable access to important health and family planning services, including routine cancer screenings and contraception." She explains that the states "chose not to ask CMS to renew" their Medicaid waiver programs, which allow states to "test new means of delivering health coverage under Medicaid, or to expand coverage to individuals who would not otherwise be eligible under federal law." The states' programs varied but generally had allowed them to offer no- or "low-cost reproductive services" to "women with incomes that do not exceed a certain amount above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), but who do not qualify for [traditional] Medicaid." Of the five states, all but Louisiana have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (PL 111-148), meaning that some "former beneficiaries of waiver programs in those states will likely receive the same low-cost services under Medicaid." However, they will "not be automatically transferred [to the program] and ... must reapply," and former participants who live in Louisiana or who exceed the income threshold for Medicaid eligibility must find other options. According to Molozanov, women's health advocates have expressed concern that "cancelling waiver programs and requiring women to reapply for health insurance will create gaps in coverage and leave many low-income women without necessary reproductive services" (Molozanov, "RegBlog," Penn Program on Regulation, 1/7).

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