Modern Healthcare interviewed Manatt’s Deborah Bachrach, a partner with Manatt Health, for an article about how the AHCA might impact states’ decisions on Medicaid expansion.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected in March that five million fewer people would be enrolled in Medicaid by 2026 due to the bill's various Medicaid changes. It said that due to the smaller federal contribution, no new states would expand Medicaid and that "some" expansion states would no longer offer that coverage.
Bachrach explained, "They have to face the reality of 2020 and say, 'Can I find the resources today to cover the federal matching dollars going away? I have the philosophical bent, but do I have the dollars to maintain that coverage?'"