Medicaid expansion called good for employers

Louisiana’s recent Medicaid expansion should benefit employers and state government, Blue Cross Health Care Economist Michael Bertaut said.
Louisiana’s Medicaid population before the Medicaid expansion occurred was 1.4 million, but there wasn’t a “broad category for just hardworking, poor people,” Bertaut said.
The expansion created a new category that automatically qualifies people for Medicaid if their income is 138 percent of the federal poverty level or less, he said. That translates to a $16,200 annual income for an individual or about $34,000 for a family of four.
Medicaid may be much better for low-income employees than an employer’s health plan, Bertaut said. If an employee chooses Medicaid, he or she would be off the employer’s plan, which could be a big savings to the company, he said.
A provision in Medicaid expansion will also save the state over $100 million per year with one group of people, Bertaut said.
Medicaid is a state and federal partnership where states typically pay 38 per-cent of the costs, while federal funds cover the other 62 percent.
However, since Louisiana began expanding Medicaid, the state doesn’t have to pay anything on the new recipients for the first year and then 5 percent, 6 percent and 7 percent each subsequent year followed by a 10 percent cap, Bertaut said.
A large number of Louisiana women are in the Medicaid pregnancy program and stay on Medicaid until two months after giving birth. But now, they can re-enroll if they get pregnant again, under a 90 percent-10 per-cent federal-state split in-stead of the 62 percent-38 percent split, Bertaut said.
Re-enrolling those women will save the state over $100 million a year, he said.
Bertaut predicts another 200,000 Louisiana residents will enroll under Medicaid expansion, adding to the 250,000 people already en-rolled.