Last week, the New York Post published an opinion piece by me and one of my colleagues where we lay out the case for states to reject a temporary bump in their Medicaid match rate because it’s actually a bad deal for states. Since the extra money comes with massive strings attached, accepting the increase in federal funding is costing states more than they are getting from the FMAP bump. The New York Post piece is based on our analysis published in our Foundation for Government Accountability report.

The bottom line: Many states made the prudent decision to opt out of the federal pandemic unemployment bonus because continuing on with the federal government’s policy was causing more harm than good. States handcuffed by new federal restrictions should similarly opt out of the Medicaid financing bump so that they can get their Medicaid programs back on track.

The Washington Post article is available here.

The FGA paper is available here.