Grove supports use of Medicaid waivers

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Rep. Seth Grove (R-York County) recently sent a letter to Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, urging the agency to reapprove the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Medicaid Waiver under Section 1115 of the Medicaid Law.

The waiver requires work requirements as part of the state’s Medicaid program. Grove had introduced a bill that would have required work requirements in Pennsylvania, but it was vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf.

Medicaid expansion has placed a large financial burden on states, Grove said, and has not ensured greater access to healthcare. Those on Medicare and the uninsured have better health care options, he said.

“In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 376,185 individuals who are abled-bodied enrolled under Medicaid expansion and report zero income,” Grove said. “This number represents more than 50 percent of our Medicaid expansion population. Kentucky’s experience is no different, as expansion resulted in 428,000 able-bodied individuals being enrolled into Medicaid due to expansion under the ACA (Affordable Care Act). Not only does this amount to 33 percent of Kentucky’s total enrollees under Medicaid, state spending on able-bodied adults since 2011 has increased fivefold reaching over $4 billion this year.”

Work requirements would force people to obtain a “family-sustaining job” and move to private health insurance, Grove said.