Enhanced Medicaid match needed to fund state services

With Republicans using the filibuster to block consideration, vitally needed federal assistance to state governments is stalled in the U.S. Senate.

 

That assistance comes principally through an enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage – or FMAP. The federal government matches the money states spend on Medicaid, but the percentage varies. In the federal stimulus package passed in 2009 by Congress the match was enhanced, giving states extra funds for other services.

 

“If Congress does not extend the enhanced Medicaid matching funds in last year’s Recovery Act, most states will cut public services or raise taxes for the fiscal year that begins July 1 by even more than they are already planning – laying off tens of thousands more teachers and other public employees, cutting education funding more sharply, and further reducing payments to health care providers and other private firms,” according to a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Without more federal aid, state budget-closing actions could cost the national economy 900,000 public- and private-sector jobs.”

 

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has said the situation is dire: “An extension for FMAP along the lines that President Obama has proposed is essential. If that does not happen, there will be thousands of layoffs of state, county and municipal workers, and a commensurate reduction of vital services to people in need.”