The commissioner and health leaders demand certainty for the federal Medicaid match

Puerto Rico's resident commissioner in Washington, Pablo José Hernández Rivera, led bipartisan efforts in the U.S. Congress to demand a permanent statutory solution to financing the Medicaid program on the island. The ask gains urgency as the deadline approaches for the federal supplemental allocations that keep the match rate (FMAP) at 76 percent for the Vital government health plan.

Accompanied by the president of the Colegio de Médicos Cirujanos de Puerto Rico, Carlos Díaz Vélez, and directors of the Hospital Association chaired by Jaime Plá Cortés, Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández Rivera warned congressional committees that a return to the historic statutory cap of 55 percent would open a fiscal abyss in the health sector. Such a reduction would force medical coverage to be stripped from hundreds of thousands of low-income beneficiaries.

The executive director of the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration (ASES), Roxanna Rosario Serrano, and Governor Jenniffer González Colón have reiterated that the lack of parity in federal financing aggravates the mass emigration of specialist and subspecialist physicians toward the U.S. mainland. Pablo José Hernández Rivera insisted that Congress must eliminate the unequal treatment that discriminates against U.S. citizens living in Puerto Rico in essential health programs.

Source: El Vocero. https://www.elvocero.com/gobierno/reclaman-certeza-para-el-pareo-federal-de-medicaid-en-puerto-rico/article_60medicaidfmap.html