House panel holds hearing on expiring Medicaid funds for territories

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health today held a hearing on expiring supplemental Medicaid funding for American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Affordable Care Act of 2010, Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, and Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019 provided the U.S. territories with additional funds and, in some cases, higher matching rates to help sustain their Medicaid programs, for which federal funding is capped and set in statute at a lower rate than if it were set by the same method used to determine states’ match rates. About 1.5 million Medicaid enrollees could begin to lose coverage after this and other supplemental funding for the programs expires by yearend, said subcommittee Chairwoman Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Testifying at the hearing were representatives from the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission and the five territorial Medicaid agencies.