A new issue brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation examines what the American Health Care Act’s (AHCA) per capita caps would mean for those Medicaid beneficiaries who are also on Medicare. The brief entitled “What Could a Medicaid Per Capita Cap Mean for Low-Income People on Medicare?” explains how the “dual eligibles” make up about 20% of the Medicare population and are some of the sicker individuals on both programs. In fact, while only 15% of Medicaid beneficiaries are on Medicare, they accounted for 33% of Medicaid spending in 2012. The issue brief points out that two-thirds of Medicaid spending on Medicare beneficiaries goes to long term services and supports (LTSS). To download the brief, click here.
It is these LTSS that people with disabilities rely on to maintain independent lives in home and community based settings as opposed to an institutional setting. The fact that the AHCA would lead to $880 billion in Medicaid cuts between 2017 and 20261 means that these LTSS are at risk for cuts and is one of the reasons that the American Association on Health and Disability (the lead partner for the NDNRC) is opposing the AHCA and has urged Congress to reject it. To read more about how the AHCA would affect people with disabilities, check out our blog post “What the AHCA Would Mean for People with Disabilities.”
- Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate, American Health Care Act 6 (Mar. 13, 2017) available at
https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/costestimate/americanhealthcareact_0.pdf.