Providers warn that block grants would hinder state Medicaid budgets
A prominent long-term care group is joining several Republican governors in saying that that block grants wouldn't work for their state Medicaid budgets.
“Governors are beginning to realize what we have known for years — any viable blueprint for Medicaid reform does not include block grants,” said American Health Care Association President and CEO Mark Parkinson.
Parkinson was responding to a recent report in The Hill quoting former Republican governors expressing concern about federal block grant proposals. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is expected to reintroduce legislation this month that would replace state Medicaid programs with block grants as part of his fiscal year 2013 budget.
Block grants, according to opponents such as federal regulators, take a one-size-fits-all approach to the state-federal program for poor, elderly and disabled individuals.
According to Parkinson, block grants just “transfer federal demands of Medicaid to states without any guarantees could very well compound the budget problems so many state executives currently face. Long term healthcare for seniors and the disabled depends on Medicaid funding.”
