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US House OKs continuing resolution
NMI Medicaid FMAP still at 100% in new legislation
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Posted on Sep 23 2019
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government running at least until Nov. 21, 2019, while also including an extension to the NMI’s exemption to the Medicaid reimbursements.
Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) announced over the weekend that the U.S. House, in a roll call vote on first reading on Sept. 19, 2019, passed U.S. Rep. Nite Lowey’s (D-NY) H.R. 4378, or the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020, and Health Extenders Act of 2019.
The legislation ultimately extends until late 2019 the same budget for the federal government in fiscal year 2019. Sablan noted, though, that clauses were inserted in the legislation that sustains the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages, or FMAP, for the NMI from June 2019’s H.R. 2157, or the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act, 2019. The legislation now heads to the U.S. Senate for review and action.
The FMAP determines the amount the CNMI has to pay in matching funds annually for certain medical and social service programs such as Medicaid.
Sablan noted in his newsletter that the bill includes an eight-week extension of the 100% FMAP “that I added to the [HR 2157] in June, so no local match of federal Medicaid dollars is required for the time being.”
By including this eight-week extension temporarily exempting the CNMI from local matching for Medicaid, the Democratic House leadership has “made clear that Medicaid funding for the Marianas and the other insular areas is an issue that needs resolution now.”
Sablan’s H.R. 2328, which seeks to secure $360 million for Marianas Medicaid over the next six years, got the go-signal to leave the committee level through voice vote. Gov. Ralph DLG Torres sent a letter addressed to U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), chairman and ranking member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance respectively, requesting for support on H.R. 2328.
Without this, the Marianas and other U.S. insular areas will face a fiscal cliff, as supplemental Medicaid funding provided under Obamacare is exhausted,” he wrote.
