Argumentative Essay On Medicaid

Medicaid is a dual funded program that is partially funded by the federal government and partially funded by the state government. The Medicaid program is in place to help low income adults, children, elderly, and disabled individuals gain access to effective healthcare. Currently the people that have access to the benefits of Medicaid are determined based on where the individual applying for Medicaid lands on the federal poverty level. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implemented by former president Barack Obama, states were told that they had to raise the coverage of Medicaid from below 100% of the poverty level to below 133% of the poverty level. Although this was stated in the ACA, a ruling between National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, stated that the expansion of coverage of Medicaid “was an invalid exercise of Congress's spending power as it would coerce states to either accept the expansion or risk losing existing Medicaid funding.” 4 This meant that states did not have to raise their eligibility to meet the mandated below 133% of the

The way Medicaid is currently paid for in terms of the federal government is through the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), which is how the “HHS will use in determining the amount of federal matching for state medical assistance (Medicaid).” 6 In this sense, states with a larger population at or below the 133% federal poverty level will receive more federal funding while states with a small population at or below the 133% will receive less federal funding. For example, the federal government covers 75% of Medicaid costs for the state of Mississippi, a state with 20.8% of the population generating an income at or below 133% of the poverty line.6,8 However, for a state like Massachusetts, a state where 12% of the population is at or below the 133% of the poverty line, the federal government only covers 50% of