Earlier this week, the House Budget Committee narrowly advanced the House Budget Committee Republican package after four Republican holdouts voted “present.” The package will now be presented to the House Rules Committee for consideration followed by the House floor; negotiations in public and private are ongoing. Moderates are expected to challenge the Medicaid cuts, while more conservative members are seeking to move up the implementation of work requirements from 2029 to 2027 and are pushing for changes to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for the Medicaid expansion population. In advance of the Rules Committee’s meeting, updated text has been released that includes changes to penalize states for covering lawfully residing children or pregnant women under the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA).
Republican leaders aim to pass the measure in the House before leaving for Memorial Day recess. The Senate returns June 2nd to begin work on the package, with leaders in both chambers hoping to send the package to the President by July 4th.
This week, Governor Hochul issued a press release outlining anticipated impacts of the reconciliation package to New York State (NYS). Collectively, NYS projects that the bills will amount to an annual loss of almost $13.5 billion and will result in over 1.4 million newly uninsured New Yorkers. The impact stems from:
- The House Ways & Means Committee bill, which eliminates premium tax credit eligibility for nearly half of the current Essential Plan (EP) enrollees and cuts more than 50% of the program’s funding (over $7.5 billion). NYS is obligated by the Aliessa court order to cover these individuals with State-only funds if need be, resulting in a further state budget impact of approximately $2.7 billion; and
- The Energy & Commerce bill, which includes eligibility changes and targeted federal cuts to the Medicaid program (over $3 billion).
After the $7.5 billion loss of EP-only money, the potential fiscal impact on State funds is about $6 billion.
The Governor’s press release is available here. Slides outlining the impact from a NYS Congressional Delegation Briefing are available here.