While a Florida judge says the National Affordable Healthcare Act is unconstitutional North Caroline is still bound by provisions of the bill that have already taken effect. One is state budget writers can no longer alter eligibility for Medicaid to try to save money. It’s not that any of those working on the state budget would want to do that, but it is no longer an option for them. The debate is still going over whether that ruling amounted to an injunction halting implementation of provisions of the federal law. But even the state of Florida continues to implement parts of the bill without challenging them.
In the meantime, The state Senate gave tentative approval to SB32 which would require hospitals to pay an “assessment” into a pool that would be used to reimburse them for losses due to Medicaid expenses. The first year the assessments would generate nearly $216 million in revenue. Some of that would be used in the Medicaid program to pull down nearly $600 million in federal Medicaid funds. A fiscal note with the bill shows all of the private and non-private hospitals in the state would get back a combined $370 million over what they paid in assessments.
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