Medicaid Premiums Hurt Patients, States

As part of their Medicaid expansion programs, states can ask the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to waive certain requirements. States can submit a Section 1115 waiver, which is intended to let states test new benefit designs and new approaches for delivering health care—so long as they promote the objectives of the Medicaid program and don’t cost the federal government extra money. Unfortunately, many conservative states are trying to use the Section 1115 waiver process to impose ideologically driven requirements and restrictions on people in the Medicaid expansion program. These efforts have hurt patients and wound up costing the states money.  - See more at: http://familiesusa.org/product/charging-medicaid-premiums-hurts-patients-and-state-budgets#sthash.yeIM4tg9.q3DuY4Ki.dpuf