When news broke last week that the Affordable Care Act would no longer be repealed and replaced, it signified an end to the waiting game on the fate of America’s current healthcare policy. The greatest affected may be Medicaid. Prior to the indefinite stay of the ACA, Medicaid Expansion reached a halt. States that were already on board, remained on board, but with Trump’s stated plans to impose stricter rules within the Medicaid platform, other states did not move in either direction awaiting further instructions.
Now that Trump’s proposed AHCA is no more, plans for Medicaid expansion can continue, and some states are already getting started. Kansas and North Carolina have moved forward with their Medicaid Expansion since Friday’s news broke. They will be the respective 32nd and 33rd states to expand Medicaid.
Prior to the Trump Presidency, other states like South Dakota, Georgia, Idaho, and Nebraska were looking into expanding Medicaid in their states. However, once Trump came into office, some of those plans came to a halt. Will they move forward now? Possibly.
With the ACA, Medicaid Expansion is largely a federally-funded platform. For two years—from 2014 through 2016—the government covered the whole expansion. That funding would be phased down from 95% in 2017 to 90% by 2020. It’s still substantial, so the remaining states who are not yet on board may finally consider it soon. As Kansas adds 150,000 more Medicaid recipients to the platform, we’ll be waiting for which state will make number 34 in the expansion.
