Letter to the Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader - Haaland Leads Call for Immediate Relief for State Medicaid Programs to Increase Health Care Access

Letter

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader McCarthy:

We write to express our strong support for providing immediate fiscal relief for state Medicaid
programs by further enhancing the federal match by 5.8 percentage points, to a total of 12
percentage points when combined with the Families First Coronavirus Response Act's (FFCRA)
6.2 percentage point enhancement with the same crucial maintenance of effort requirements
provided in FFRCA. In addition, we believe the federal match for state Medicaid administrative
activities should be increased to 75 percent.

Medicaid provides a vital health care safety net for more than 72 million Americans and can only
effectively function with the help of the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for state
Medicaid expenditures. Medicaid remains one of the single largest expenditures in state budgets
every year and the cost continues to increase alongside prescription drug prices.

Since March 14, 2020, more than 22 million Americans have filed new unemployment claims.
Twenty-one states have seen more than one in 10 eligible workers file for claims while some
sates have seen numbers as high as one in six workers. As we continue to fight this public health
crisis, unemployment percentages may raise to the high teens, resulting in not only overwhelmed
unemployment offices, but a never before seen increase in Medicaid applicants and recipients.
State budgets are simply not prepared to handle this increase in cost and if we do not intervene,
they may have to make draconian cuts to other vital programs, including education and
infrastructure. We must take more significant action to ensure Medicaid provider infrastructure
remains fiscally sound during this crisis and that it does not trigger another crisis by obliterating
state budgets.

An additional FMAP enhancement of 5.8 percentage points will help provide states with the
fiscal support necessary to meet increasing demands on Medicaid programs. As with the
Families First Conoravirus Response Act, this enhancement should also apply directly to the
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). An additional increase in the federal match for
state Medicaid administrative activities to 75 percent should also help states manage an increase
in enrollment applications and allow states to reinvest in other vital programs during this crisis.

For these reasons, we support increasing the Medicaid federal match, CHIP federal match, and
state Medicaid administrative activities federal match with the same crucial maintenance of
effort requirements provided in FFRCA.