Hilltop Research on Medicaid Provider Taxes featured in the New York Times Again

Abstract

A New York Times article released today titled “The Biggest Medicaid Cut Left for House Republicans Would Hit Red States Hardest” features a follow-up to Hilltop’s analysis of the potential impact of eliminating the 6% Medicaid provider tax safe harbor threshold. This is a follow-up story to earlier coverage, and includes the impact of Managed Care Organization (MCO) taxes, in addition to hospital and nursing facility taxes. Today’s piece compares the distributional impacts of eliminating provider taxes with another proposed Medicaid reform. Hilltop’s analysis, authored by Director of Analytics and Research Dr. Morgan Henderson, Senior Data Scientist Dr. Leigh Goetschius, and Interim Executive Director Alice Middleton, finds that eliminating the 6% provider tax threshold would not impact states equally, and would potentially jeopardize over 30% of total Medicaid federal funding for certain states (Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Utah, Tennessee, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Iowa). Both Dr. Henderson and Ms. Middleton are quoted in the piece. This is the latest in a series of Hilltop analyses focused on modeling state-level impacts of potential federal Medicaid policy changes; click here for other analysis on work requirements and FMAP floor changes.