Expanding Medicaid to cover low-income populations has been a fundamental
component of leading health reform proposals. The House Leadership Bill would
expand Medicaid to 150 percent of the federal poverty level and the Senate
Leadership Bill would expand Medicaid to 133 percent of the federal poverty
level. In both scenarios the federal government would finance a substantial
share of costs for the expansion groups.
This analysis, however, shows
that it is possible to distribute increased federal payments in multiple
alternative ways that could be less complicated and would avoid perpetuation of
inequities that would be associated with providing higher matching rates just
for new eligible Medicaid enrollees.
Report (.pdf)
