Read this about the Medicaid cap. This is horrible. [View all]
http://ccf.georgetown.edu/2017/03/20/why-the-medicaid-cap-cant-be-fixed/
Emphasis mine
This open-ended federal commitment to states participating in Medicaid is the foundation for the many roles Medicaid plays in our nations health care system that we now take for granted. Medicaid is the largest health insurer for children; covers the cost of delivery for about half of Americas newborns each year; and is the top source of funding for those who need help paying for long-term care in a nursing home or in the community. It is also the foundation for the innovation that many states have undertaken in recent years to reform their delivery systems, drive the adoption of value-based purchasing, improve the quality of care, and improve health outcomes, especially among populations with health disparities.
Under the House bill, this foundation would be ripped up and the world we have taken for granted would be turned upside down. The bill would impose a cap a hard limit on federal payments to states for health and long-term care services starting in 2020 and continuing every year after that, in perpetuity. In states that exceed their cap in 2020 (and any year thereafter), the federal government would claw back the excess in the following year.
It is the fact of this cap not the multiple moving pieces of the formula by which it is calculated in any given year that is the point of this legislative exercise. It is a game-changer for sure, but its changing the game into something nobody should want to play (think Hunger Games).
Heres why. Starting October 1, 2019, each states spending on Medicaid benefits for that fiscal year will be measured against a target amount for FY 2020. (A federal fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends the following September 30). The state will have a rough idea of what its cap will be by Jan. 1, 2020 (a full quarter into FY 2020) but it wont actually know its final cap for FY 2020, or whether it has stayed under the cap, until after FY 2020 is over, in early 2021.
Jesus, that is sadistic