Medicaid block grants would be ok for Massachusetts
The old Republican idea of replacing Medicaid with block grants to the states is back on the front burner. In general I oppose it because it is likely to be used as a backdoor way to screw people with low incomes by reducing available funding. And I also fear it will increase healthcare disparities in many states where the commitment to universal coverage is low. Read (Everything you need to know about block grants - The Heart of GOP's Medicaid Plans) from Kaiser Health News for the ins and outs.But a shift to block grants would be fine for Massachusetts. It might be preferable to the status quo, even with the threat of a slowdown in funding.In particular, Massachusetts is operating under a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that will enable the commonwealth to shift Medicaid recipients into accountable care organizations (ACOs). We need permission from the feds to tackle Medicaid reform, and have had to argue with CMS to get funding for priorities that the state government thinks are important, such as directing funding to providers for the uninsured.Under a block grant program, Massachusetts (and other states) could do as they please. In Massachusetts, I'm confident that we'd do the right thing. Frankly, under the current system I worry that the Trump Administration could decide to punish Massachusetts and our level-headed, bi-partisan oriented Governor by yanking the waiver.I'll go a step further and say it would also be fine for Massachusetts if the whole Affordable Care Act were repealed and not replaced. Even though Obamacare was based on Romneycare, there are enough differences that it has caused painful adjustments in the Massachusetts market that we could do without.As long as we are exploring radical ideas, we could go a step further and establish that each state receive back from the federal government the same share as it pays in from taxes. Instead of redistributing revenues from Democratic states like Massachusetts and California to Republican ones like Mississippi and Alabama as we do now (ironic isn't it), we could even things out. That's kind of agains the ethos of our republic, but hey, times are changing.In any case, while block grants and repeal of the ACA are bad ideas that will hurt the country as a whole if enacted, in Massachusetts we should be just fine.
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By healthcare business consultant David E. Williams, president of Health Business Group.