[G]ov. Peter Shumlin will no longer seek to make about 300 pregnant women per year ineligible for Medicaid in order to balance the state budget.
The governor is backing away from a plan that, if passed, would have required pregnant women making between $16,243 and $25,070 to buy their health insurance through Vermont Health Connect instead of be covered by Medicaid.
On Thursday, the Shumlin administration predicted that the change in Medicaid eligibility would have saved $2.25 million from the state’s general fund. The proposal also would have saved a few million dollars in federal money.
“After further review, we determined that the savings associated with that policy decision could potentially have an adverse impact on pregnant women,” Scott Coriell, the spokesperson for Shumlin, said in an email on Friday.
Historically, Vermont has been more generous in signing up pregnant women for Medicaid than signing up other low-income people. Women have also been disproportionately represented on Vermont’s Medicaid rolls.
The proposal outlined Thursday would have dropped the eligibility level for pregnant women from 213 percent of the federal poverty level to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which is the cutoff for any nonpregnant adults to get Medicaid.
The Department of Vermont Health Access said there are currently 298 pregnant women who fall between the two proposed thresholds. Anyone who got pregnant after the proposed law went into effect would have been forced to buy insurance through Vermont Health Connect.
“It’s important to me that we provide the best prenatal care possible,” said House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown. “That was my concern with the administration’s proposal. We’re pleased that they decided to keep things as is.”
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, said keeping the Medicaid eligibility as is would “ensure that women who need care at an important time in their lives have health care when they need it.”
“The savings may have seemed appealing at the beginning, but in reality it would’ve affected some of the most vulnerable in our population,” Lyons said.
Sen. Anthony Pollina, P/D-Washington, said, “in the rush to cut spending they sometimes inadvertently throw people under the bus.”
Lawrence Miller, the chief of health care reform, said the administration decided to pull the proposal after gaining “a better understanding of the implications.”
He said the administration originally wanted to expand coverage to uninsured women who get pregnant and are unable to report a life change to Vermont Health Connect. Currently, uninsured pregnant women making more than $25,070 need to wait for an open enrollment period to get health insurance.
Miller said the administration will still seek to change the law to allow those women to get insurance through Vermont Health Connect more quickly.
The Legislature would need to approve that change, and he estimated it might go into effect on Jan. 1, 2017, in accordance with the new insurance plan year.
