By skyforbes 
With all eyes now trained on how the Trump administration might alter the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through regulation, it’s particularly worth watching how it handles one lesser-known option for states: partial Medicaid expansion.
Under “regular Medicaid expansion (Obamacare),” the program’s eligibility parameters include everyone with an income of up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).
But some states that declined that option and applied for a twist on expansion — which would have had Medicaid cover those with incomes up to 100% of the FPL, but not those between 100% and 138%. Those in the 100% to 138% range would instead be shifted to the ACA exchanges.
The Obama administration denied those requests, but its legal grounds to do so were rather flimsy, according to a perspective piece from The New England Journal of Medicine. In reality, the ACA leaves considerable room for states to tinker with Medicaid eligibility.
Enter Arkansas, which has applied for a federal waiver to allow it to enact a partial Medicaid expansion. If the Trump administration decides to grant that request, the article argues, it will “set a precedent with extraordinary practical, budgetary and political consequences.”
2017 Federal Poverty Levels can be accessed at the following link:
http://familiesusa.org/product/federal-poverty-guidelines
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