Florida Sen. Rick Scott is circulating text of his amendment to the GOP megabill that would effectively end a key Medicaid financing mechanism after 2030.
The provision won the backing of Senate Majority Leader John Thune during an eleventh-hour negotiating session held Friday night as a procedural vote was held open to win over Scott and other holdouts. It is expected to come up during the “vote-a-rama” set to take place overnight Sunday into Monday where dozens of amendments will be debated and voted on.
Scott said Sunday he’s “very confident that my amendment is going to pass.” Other Republicans are skeptical, with several in the GOP ranks nervous about cutting too deeply into Medicaid.
Under the amendment, the federal government’s 90 percent cost share for Medicaid enrollees made newly eligible under the 2010 Affordable Care Act will end on Dec. 31, 2030. Beneficiaries who were enrolled prior to that date would be grandfathered in at the old rate, but new enrollees would see their medical costs reimbursed at the lower “FMAP” rate, which can be as low as 50 percent, with states picking up the rest.
The amendment is co-sponsored by GOP Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, as well as Finance Chair Mike Crapo of Idaho.
