Medicaid Working Group Formed

Statement

As I did to extend the Commonwealth Only Transitional Worker (CW) program for ten years in the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act, I have now formed a congressional working group to address the end of supplemental Medicaid funding in September 2019. The supplemental funding--$109 million for the Marianas--was included in the 2010 Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, P.L. 111-152, or Obamacare. The money kept the Commonwealth Healthcare Center open after the Fitial administration cut the hospital out of the government budget and is now almost entirely spent.

The CW working group was simpler than the Medicaid working group will be, because only the Marianas was involved. With Medicaid I have invited congressional staff from American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, all of which face the same Medicaid "cliff," but each of which has different constraints and capabilities in delivering health care. That makes a resolution more complicated than the CW extension. The working group has already met with Senate and House committees with jurisdiction over Medicaid, so the issue is on the agenda for the next, 116th U.S. Congress beginning in January. I have also included legislative language in the Health Equity and Accountability Act, H.R. 5492, that would solve the "cliff" problem by treating all the insular areas like states for purposes of Medicaid. This bill has the support of 67 Members so far and is likely to be a starting point for health care legislation in a Democratic-majority House next year.

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