THE REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE BILL pending in Congress could cost Massachusetts $1 billion in federal revenue in 2020, a figure that could rise to nearly $2 billion by 2022, according to an analysis of the legislation by the Baker administration.
In a letter to the state’s congressional delegation on Tuesday, Baker extrapolated the impact on Massachusetts using a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the American Health Care Act. Baker estimated the state could lose $1 billion in federal aid in 2020, $1.3 billion in 2021, and $1.5 billion in 2022. He said the state is also at risk of losing another $425 million to $475 million in so-called 1115 payments, primarily federal matching funds for a program subsidizing health care purchases by low-income residents.
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Editor, CommonWealth
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
“The actual experience for these and other factors is significantly dependent on how the US Department of Health and Human Services implements the legislation and unpredictable factors in the future (e.g., pharmaceutical growth).
Baker reiterated that he would use state funds to reimburse Planned Parenthood if the federal government bars Medicaid reimbursements to the organization “for health services such as cancer screenings.”
“Overall,” Baker wrote, “our analysis indicates that the American Health Care Act would increasingly strain the fiscal resources necessary to support the Commonwealth’s continued commitment to universal health care coverage.”
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