Medicaid cost jump threatens state budget
SANTA FE – New Mexico faces about $82 million in extra Medicaid costs next year – far outpacing the amount of new revenue expected to be available.
The extra costs are possible partly because Congress has not reauthorized funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.
It would cost the state about $31 million to cover those children, although there’s still a chance the federal government will renew CHIP funding. And the state may not have the option of letting coverage lapse for those children – not that it would want to – said Brent Earnest, secretary of the state Human Services Department.
Even if the federal money for CHIP were approved, however, the state’s tab for Medicaid would climb about $50 million, or twice the projected amount of “new money” available in the whole $6.1 billion operating budget.
Read more: https://www.abqjournal.com/1083062/medicaid-federal-inaction-squeeze-nm-budget.html
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