Gov. Kevin Stitt should look at Puerto Rico's Medicaid mess before he signs up Oklahoma for block

Gov. Kevin Stitt should look at Puerto Rico's Medicaid mess before he signs up Oklahoma for block grant funding


Before he takes Oklahoma into a Medicaid block grant program that we may later regret, Gov. Kevin Stitt might want to take a closer look at what’s going on in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is part of the United States, but it isn’t a state. It’s a territory. The distinction is real in a number of ways. The people there are U.S. citizens. They pay the same Social Security and Medicare taxes as you and I, but they generally don’t pay the personal income tax. They also don’t get full representation in Congress or a vote in presidential elections outside of the primaries.

They also don’t get the same Medicaid funding or services as most states.

A reduced variation of Medicaid in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories is funded through annual block grants. The territorial governments get a set amount of money — $367 million in the case of Puerto Rico for fiscal year 2019 — which is matched with local taxes to pay for anyone who is eligible for the program.

The critical issue here is that federal funding is capped. If more people need Medicaid services (last year the total bill was closer to $2.5 billion in Puerto Rico) than the block grant anticipated, there’s a problem.

Read more: https://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/columnists/wayne-greene-gov-kevin-stitt-should-look-at-puerto-rico/article_ef7f14f0-9e86-5ca3-b3a4-5ed1c3ce807b.html