Vox quoted Manatt’s Deborah Bachrach, a partner with Manatt Health, for an article about House Budget Chair Rep. Tom Price’s budget proposal, which includes block grants for Medicaid. In return for accepting less money, block-granted states would get additional flexibility to decide how, exactly, Medicaid dollars get spent.
Block grant opponents don't think the savings are possible without harming benefits, either by dropping people off the program or by cutting into the benefits they receive. A block grant system would be very different from the current Medicaid program, where all people in certain categories — low-income pregnant women, for example — are guaranteed access to the program. There are mandatory groups of people states have to cover.
“The administrative costs of Medicaid are the lowest of any insurer in the country," Bachrach said. "You can't do the cuts through administration. And if more primary care and community-based services could save 30 percent, we would have done that already."
Read the article here.