The inclusion of an extension of an increase of the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP) in jobs legislations in the Senate remains a critical issue for states across the country. The Senate is expected to take up the second of several pieces of legislation focused on job retention and creation the week of February 22, and an enhanced FMAP extension may be included in the bill. Please contact your Senators today and ask them to support a six-month extension of the enhanced FMAP as outlined in S. 3000.
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced S. 3000 on February 4 which would extend the enhanced FMAP through June 30, 2011, and LSA and many other organizations are hopeful that this legislation will be included as an amendment to the jobs bill expected to be taken up by the Senate next week. If your Senator(s) signed on as a cosponsor of S. 3000 (check here), please thank them for signing on; if they have not, please ask them to sign on. To find the phone number of your Senators' offices, click here.
Background: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included an enhanced Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentages (FMAP) match to provide assistance to states struggling to fund their Medicaid programs during lean budget times. The enhanced rate established in ARRA is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2010. State legislatures are now in session with many of them working on FY2011 state budgets that run from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011, and the anticipated loss of the enhanced FMAP rate halfway through the fiscal year is causing some legislatures to consider even deeper cuts in state budgets. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates "without further federal aid, the actions states will have to take to close their budget gaps could cost the economy 900,000 jobs." On February 21, the National Governors' Association sent a letter to leadership of the House and Senate saying, "Timely passage of an extension of ARRA’s enhanced FMAP would greatly assist us in maintaining services and further stabilizing the economy." Families USA recently released a special report, States in Need: Congress Should Extend Temporary Increase in Medicaid Funding; page 8 of the report lists the amount of additional Medicaid funding each state would receive from January 2011 to June 2011 with the increased rate.
For more information, please contact Lisa Hassenstab, Director of Advocacy and Policy at lhassenstab@lutheranservices.org or Meg Cooch, Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Lutheran Services in America Disability Network at mcooch@lutheranservices.org.
