Enhanced FMAP eligibility for U.S. offshore areas not on par with states
Sept. 23, 2009
Governor Felix P. Camacho and U.S. Virgin Islands Governor John P. de Jongh Jr. urged U.S. senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley in a
letter Friday to ensure that U.S. offshore areas, including Guam, the CNMI, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, be eligible for the enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for new eligibles.
Baucus, chairman for the Committee on Finance in the U.S. Senate, released his chairman’s mark for health care legislation that is now pending before the Senate Finance Committee. His mark provides that coverage of newly eligibles in the U.S. territories would not be subject to the new Medicaid spending caps. However, his mark does not state whether the expanded coverage would be subject to enhanced FMAP on the same basis as the states.
Guam’s and the other territories’ FMAP for 2009 is 50 percent, effective through Sept. 30, 2009. While the chairman’s mark would extend the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increase in the Medicaid cap and increase the territorial FMAP to 55 percent, it would leave the U.S. territories “severely disadvantaged in comparison with their fellow Americans on the mainland,” the letter states.
Governors Camacho and de Jongh urged the senators to reduce this disparity by clarifying in the legislation that the extended FMAP for new eligibles also applies to the U.S. territories. They noted that this “would represent a significant step forward in fulfilling [President Barack Obama’s] commitment to provide equal treatment for the territories and to ensure that federal health care benefits are available to all Americans, regardless of where they reside.”
Related Reading: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/59683-puerto-rico-and-territories-left-out-of-healthcare-reform
