LANSING — With Medicaid possibly emerging as a potential target for cuts in federal spending, advocates say decreases in the program’s funding could come at the expense of more than two million Michigan recipients.
Medicaid is the federal insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans and covers nearly 80 million people across the country.
States pay about 30% of medicaid expenses, while the federal government pays the remaining 70%, about $600 billion a year.
“Medicaid here in Michigan could not exist without without federal funding,” said Nora Becker, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.
According to the federal government, about 2.3 million Michigan residents are enrolled in medicaid, including close to a million children.
A single-person household qualifies if they make about $20,000 a year or less. For a family of three, that limit increases to about $35,000 a year per person, or around $70,000 for a couple.
A budget plan passed by House Republicans last month would likely require at least $300 billion in Medicaid spending cuts over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Supporters of Medicaid access say that any decrease in spending would likely result in loss of coverage for some or decreased coverage for some procedures.
“The state would have to decide with less resources, and neither of those options are ideal, and both of them would result in a strain on our hospitals and our physicians and our practices in Michigan,” said Tom George, CEO of the Michigan State Medical Society
Researchers say that adequate Medicaid funding allows patients to receive regular medical care, which can help avoid costlier treatments later in life.
“The thinking is that by preventing disastrous medical outcomes, it not only enhances the quality of life of michiganders, but also is more is more cost effective,” George said.
Some lawmakers have proposed putting work requirements on medicaid, similar to food stamps. But advocates say that most able-bodied adult Medicaid recipients already work, and adding extra requirements for coverage would likely do more harm than good.
“We know that that work requirements are popular as a concept, but we really we need to focus on people being healthy so that they can work, as opposed to working so that they can become healthy,” said Laura Appel, executive vice president of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.