Gov. Bob McDonnell sent a letter on Thursday to President Barak Obama and leaders in the Congress calling upon them to repeal provisions in the federal healthcare stimulus program that require states to maintain Medicaid eligibility levels at previous rates.
The Maintenance of Eligibility provisions restrict Virginia and other states from reducing the number of citizens eligible for Medicaid by lowering maximum income standards for participation in the program—a key tool used by states to control spiraling healthcare costs.
“Here in Virginia, the MOE requirements imposed by the federal government required the Commonwealth to restore planned savings of almost $400 million through Fiscal Year 2019. This included increasing the Medicaid eligibility level for long term care services to 300 percent of Supplemental Security Income and we were mandated to lift a freeze on long term care waivers,” McDonnell wrote in the letter.
The requirements, McDonnell wrote in the letter, “have hindered the Commonwealth’s ability to ensure that limited resources are directed to those most in need of public assistance, thereby imposing greater uncertainty on future budgets.”
To read a copy of the letter, visit www.hhr.virginia.gov/docs/05052011-Letter.pdf.
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