The Brain Injury Association of America posts the following update:
Tell your Senators to Extend Extra Medicaid Funding Through June 2011!
It is important that all grassroots advocates unite to support the extension of the current elevated Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP) that is currently being debated in the Senate and will be very important to states come the end of this year!
Originally, both the House and the Senate acted to extend the extra match through June 2011, the end of the fiscal year for states. However, the offsets that were supposed to pay for this extension went instead to help pay for the health care reform legislation. Without an extension, the money will run out Dec. 31, 2010, and many states will be forced to make drastic cuts to the federal-state program. The 2009 federal stimulus package provided $87 billion to increase the federal share of the program through December (it included a 6.2% increase of the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) under Medicaid).
Last week, House Democrats debated HR 4213, the vehicle for this extension and chose to remove the provision extending extra federal Medicaid funding. With states in fiscal peril due to the recession and unemployment, it is vital that the extra federal funding continues in order to keep health care accessible for many brain injury patients and caregivers!
