One issue area I’ve been researching is ways to improve our state Medicaid system. States were granted additional controls over Medicaid and SCHIP and flexibility to improve the implementation of those programs in legislation passed in 1997 and 2005. Many states have tried to do so, notably Florida. Sadly, Delaware isn’t one of those states. And now, our ability to improve the situation will suffer a huge blow if the Medicaid provisions in the House Bill survive to the final Senate product.
Among the changes are restrictions on state choices for insuring kids through Medicaid or SCHIP, disallowing some asset tests for eligibility and mandating coverages that are currently state options.
Feel free to read the section if you want. It’s thick with legalese, but it has a profound effect on our ability to manage a program that is 20% of our state budget. One of the highest priorities of the current Administration and Legislature should be a full-scale performance audit of our Medicaid program by a third party. However, with this stripping of valuable control by the federal government in their takeover of the health insurance industry, we may be less likely to do so than ever.
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