Arizona Medicaid agency says Senate health bill cost $7.1B

BOB CHRISTIE
Associated Press

Arizona’s Medicaid agency says a new U.S. Senate proposal repealing much of former President Barack Obama’s health care law would cost the state at least $7.1 billion through 2026.

The analysis released Friday says the costs occur even if the state freezes enrollment in expanded Medicaid.

Changes to federal matching payments for the state’s 1.9 million Medicaid recipients would cost $2.9 billion. Limiting inflation adjustments would cost $2.2 billion.

Another $2 billion loss would occur when a hospital assessment that pays the state costs of covering 82,000 people in the expanded program and 319,000 childless adults stops. That will happen in 2022 when federal matching rates hit an 80 percent trigger in the 2013 state law authorizing expansion.

Raising taxes to replace the money is unlikely in a Republican-controlled state.