releases: http://sablan.house.gov/kilili-us-republicans-cut-medicaid-nmi-other-insular-areas
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://sablan.house.gov/kilili-us-republicans-cut-medicaid-nmi-other-insular-areas | Kilili: US Republicans cut Medicaid for NMI, other insular areas | 2016-01-08 | 2016 | 2016-01 | Independent | Senate | MP | Gregorio Sablan | S001177 | sablan.house.gov | legacy | Marianas Variety WASHINGTON, D.C. (Office of the CNMI Congressional Delegate) -The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to take away approximately $26 million in Medicaid funding for the Northern Mariana Islands that was part of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Funding for the other insular areas American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands was similarly cut. Republicans also voted to raise the local match required for Medicaid to 50 percent. The Affordable Care Act had lowered the local share for the insular areas to 45 percent. The bill, H.R. 3762, has already passed the Senate and now goes to President Obama for action. He is expected to veto it. We worked very, very hard to get increased Medicaid funding for our islands into the Affordable Care Act in 2009, said U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan in response to the Republican action. To date that amounts to over $52 million, new money that was essential to keeping the Commonwealth Health Center open after the hospital lost local funding. And the Northern Marianas still has another $57 million in the Affordable Care Act pipeline between now and 2019. What the Republican bill would do is end all of that funding in 2017 a loss of about $26 million to CHC and to the low-income families who depend on Medicaid to pay for their health care. I just do not understand how any political party can justify taking so much from people who have so little, Sablan said. In addition to the straight loss of federal Medicaid dollars for the insular areas, H.R. 3762 is also a setback to the effort to get the same treatment as states on the local match for Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act took a step in the right direction by changing the local/federal cost-share from 50/50 to 45/55, Sablan said. That gave us a better local/federal match than 22 states. Of course, if we were treated exactly like a state and the match was calculated based on income levels in the Marianas, it would be in the neighborhood of 20 percent local and 80 percent federal. Being treated like a state for Medicaid remains my goal. But todays Republican vote takes us in the opposite direction. I am glad that President Obama will be vetoing this bad legislation and standing up for families in the Northern Mariana Islands, who would not have access to health care except for the Medicaid program, Sablan said. Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid funding increased from about $50 million to $158 million over the 10-year period ending in September 2019 a three-fold increase. What I want to be talking about now is what comes after 2019, Congressman Sablan explained. CHC and poor families here cannot go back to the days when we only received $5 million per year for Medicaid. We should be enacting legislation that continues or expands the new funding provided by the Affordable Care Act. Instead, the majority wants to take us backwards to the way Medicaid worked in the Northern Marianas before 2009. In a separate interview, Gov. Ralph Torres said: Regardless of the politics surrounding the Affordable Care Act in Washington, D.C, the fact of the matter is that Medicaid services provide access to healthcare to a vast number of our residents. To reduce the federal funding for this important program that provides for lower-income households in the CNMI is a disservice to the disproportionate amount of the population living under the federal poverty guidelines. I appreciate and applaud Congressman Sablans efforts to protect our Medicaid program and our ability to continue the necessary work to improve the overall health outcomes of our people. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |