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Torres letter seeks more Medicaid funds
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Posted on Apr 09 2019
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ letter seeking help to inject more federal money to the CNMI Medicaid Office was described as helpful in Congress and echoes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which affirms that the Marianas is nearly out of Medicaid funds.
In the letter sent to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) last month, Torres said that only $270,000 remains in the local Medicaid funds.
The governor’s letter reported that the Commonwealth has now used up all but $270,000 of its annual Medicaid grant, as well as the additional $109 million that was included in the Affordable Care Act in 2010 for Marianas Medicaid.
“The letter is helpful, as we work to get more Medicaid money in the disaster supplemental appropriation now stalled in the Senate. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Trump administration also attest that the Marianas is out of Medicaid money,” said Sablan.
The local Medicaid’s funds were provided by the expanded Affordable Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare, which the Republican-controlled Senate is trying to repeal and replace.
Torres’ letter asks Sablan to seek congressional help in assisting the CNMI to mitigate the anticipated impact of the ACA funding on the local Medicaid office.
“[The] Republicans’ versions of the bill in the Senate have all but removed the $36 million that I was able to include in the legislation when it passed the House in January,” Sablan said.
The $36 million for Medicaid is an amendment to H.R. 268 that Republicans in the Senate removed when the bill reached the chamber.
