The acting chief of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said during a visit to Atlanta on Wednesday that the agency would not “meddle” with Georgia or any state considering how to extend coverage to the uninsured poor, but that CMS is open to working with states that may ultimately decide to expand Medicaid.
"Because this is a state initiative, I don't think anyone will find it particularly helpful if we meddle," said Andy Slavitt, acting administrator for CMS. Slavitt toured Southside Medical Center in southwest Atlanta in part to promote enrollment in Obamacare and Medicare.
However, "if Georgia at some level wanted to move toward a program to cover those who need it, they would find a very eager partner," Slavitt said.
Some “red,” or Republican, states that refused to expand Medicaid are looking for ways to extend the program to uninsured, poor adults. In those conversations, Slavitt said, CMS officials explain ways to make expansion work for states that are concerned about the long-term costs of expanding the program. Some are beginning to see expansion as something that is good for the economy, rather than harmful.
“I do hope and I do believe in my heart that it (expansion) will become a practical thing, not a political thing” as expansion-resistant states look for ways to provide insurance for their poor, Slavitt said.
Of Georgia's chances of expanding Medicaid, Slavitt said simply, "stranger things have happened."
Slavitt said he also hopes that consumers one day will be as comfortable shopping for Obamacare as they are when shopping for anything else.
“We view and hope consumers view enrollment as the ultimate consumer empowerment,” Slavitt said. “The best thing they can do is shop for what they want.”
Slavitt acknowledged hurdles in shopping for Obamacare, some of which have stemmed from problems inherent in rolling out a huge, new federal program, he said.
Others, he admitted, have been the result of a learning curve for CMS. Since a disastrous rollout in 2013 that stemmed from computer problems, the agency has gained information from consumers about things that work for them and things that don’t.
Some problems have been the result of people not having had insurance or health care for years, Slavitt said, and not understanding terms such as "deductible" and "co-pay."
When asked about consumer complaints about high deductibles and co-payments, Slavitt said the marketplace and navigators can do a better job explaining those concepts and costs.
Slavitt compared the Obamacare rollout to Medicare’s rollout 50 years ago. Many consumers struggled with the concept and the specifics of that federal program. Medicare had many critics back then, just as Obamacare has now.
“But I look at what Medicare has done, and how poverty among seniors has declined from 33 percent to less than 10 percent,” Slavitt said.
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