Press Releases

Better Care Reconciliation Act ensures that low-income adults receiving Medicaid have access to high quality affordable coverage

Better Care Reconciliation Act ensures that low-income adults receiving Medicaid have access to high quality affordable coverage

     CMS confirms that BCRA provides support for low-income Americans

The Senate’s healthcare proposal provides funding to ensure that low-income adults will have access to high quality, affordable coverage and care. The proposal provides significant new funding to states, including tax credits, a stability fund with over $180 billion that states can use to help low-income Americans purchase coverage, and $45 billion to address the opioid epidemic. This funding can be combined with states’ existing Medicaid funding to allow states to design a plan to help their low-income population purchase personal private coverage that offers more access to providers and better health outcomes.

A fair and accurate analysis of the Senate proposal should account for these new resources and how states can innovate using the new flexibilities made available under the BCRA.

“CMS is ready to partner with states to develop options that work best for their low income population” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “BCRA includes the funding states need to provide healthcare freedom and choices for people whose only option under ACA was Medicaid.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, M.D., and Seema Verma, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services addressed the future of healthcare at a meeting with governors at the Summer 2017 National Governors Association Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, Saturday, July 15, 2017. Their remarks can be found here.

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