Iowa lawmakers could face pressure over Medicaid benefit cut

DES MOINES, Ia. — The Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature could face pressure next session over its decision earlier this year to reduce a key Medicaid benefit for poor and disabled people, but it’s still unclear how much lawmakers are willing to reverse course on an issue that critics say will be detrimental to the state’s health care system.

Some Republican lawmakers have begun to question whether the cut to so-called retroactive eligibility, which essentially helps new patients with recently incurred medical costs, was larger than intended. They’ve indicated the topic will be revisited when they return in January, and health care groups are expected to lobby for some kind of action. Several of them spoke against the change at a legislative committee last week.

That meeting included candid talk from some GOP lawmakers, like Sen. Mark Chelgren of Ottumwa, who raised various ideas about additional exemptions around the change, which took effect Nov. 1.

“I think that this is something that’s going to have to be solved in the next session,” he told his colleagues.

Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/11/19/iowa-lawmakers-could-face-pressure-over-medicaid-benefit-cut/878749001/