Virginia Has a “Trigger Law” to Eliminate Medicaid Expansion if Federal Funding Is Reduced

December 09, 2024

Thanks to ANCOR!

As a new administration is gearing up to take control of Washington, there are nine states poised to eliminate the Medicaid Expansion component of the Affordable Care Act. The states of Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia each have some provision that would end coverage for the expansion population resulting in some 3 million people losing their health care. These nine states have “trigger laws” that would rapidly end the expansion program if federal funding were reduced. Most of the nine states’ triggers activate if federal funding falls below the 90% threshold currently funded by the federal government and Arizona’s trigger will eliminate its expansion if funding falls below 80%. According to Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, “triggers make it politically easier for state lawmakers to end Medicaid expansion because they would not have to take any new action to cut coverage.” Despite the issue of triggers in these nine states, Robin Rudowitz, vice president and director of the Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said, “With a reduction in the expansion match rate, it is likely that all states would need to evaluate whether to continue expansion coverage because it would require a significant increase in state spending.”