Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) and Republican Senate Majority
Leader Jim Denning on Jan. 9 said they'd reached a compromise proposal to
extend Medicaid coverage to an estimated 130,000 more low-income Kansans.
If approved, Kansas will pursue a full expansion of Medicaid to
138% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) with a 90/10 funding match. The state
will also seek Section 1332 waiver approval to establish a reinsurance program
and Section 1115 waiver approval to transition individuals whose incomes fall
between 100% and 138% of the FPL from Medicaid to the exchange no later than
Jan. 1, 2022, although expansion is not dependent on those waivers. If CMS
denies either waiver, full Medicaid expansion will be implemented on Jan. 1,
2021, according to a summary of the pending legislation.
Kansas would be the 37th state to expand Medicaid. Ballot
initiatives are pending in Missouri and Oklahoma, while voters in Nebraska and
Utah have already approved expansion. The 10 remaining non-expansion states are
largely concentrated in the South.
According to a summary of the pending Kansas legislation, the
compromise proposal would feature a "robust work referral program,"
"modest" premiums of up to $25 per month for an individual (or $100
per family) and no lockout provisions. But the expansion deal does not include
work requirements.
Compared with other states that have attempted to require
able-bodied expansion enrollees to seek work or other volunteer activities or
risk losing their Medicaid coverage, the Kansas tactic is "a kinder,
gentler approach to work," remarks Jerry Vitti, founder and CEO of
Healthcare Financial, Inc.
In a Jan. 9 research note from Evercore ISI, securities analyst
Michael Newshel noted that if the approximately 130,000 additional lives that
would be covered by expansion were split evenly among the state's three
contracted MCOs — which are units of Centene Corp., CVS Health Corp.-owned
Aetna and UnitedHealthcare — they would each gain roughly $250 million in
annual revenues.
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