Question

What incentive did the Affordable Care Act offer to encourage states to expand Medicaid eligibility?

		The federal government would pay 100 percent of the state's cost for expanding eligibility for the first three years and then no less than 90 percent in subsequent years.
		The federal government would reduce its share of the state's Medicaid costs if the state did not expand Medicaid eligibility.
		Each state was required by law to expand Medicaid eligibility, and this requirement was subsequently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Answer 1

The Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act made a number of changes to Medicaid. Perhaps the most widely discussed is the expansion of eligibility to adults with incomes upto 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

Affordable Care Act(ACA) sought to increase the number of Americans with health insurance by providing new premium tax credits for the purchase of private health insurance & made a number of reforms to the private insurance market. The law also allowed young adults to remain on their parent's insurance plans upto age 26 & required most individuals to secure minimum essential coverage.

The ACA, also included provisions to streamline eligibility, enrollment & renewal processes , for example, by requiring a single application for Medicaid, CHIP & Subsidized exchange coverage.

The ACA also included reductions in federal funds for disproportionate share hospital supplemental payments under the assumption that increased coverage would lead to a decline in uncompensated care.