Using Medicaid to meet health needs during the recession

When the 111th Congress begins work in January, its first order of business will be passage of a stimulus package to help the economy get moving again. 

During economic downturns, the Medicaid program (called Medical Assistance in Pennsylvania) is one of the tools Congress can use to stimulate the economy while also helping average people hang on until better times return. 

How would that work?  In a policy brief released in early December, the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured   identified options for Congress to consider: (a) shift a larger share of the cost of Medicaid from the states to the federal government; (b) reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance  Program (SCHIP); (c) simplify enrollment in Medicaid and SCHIP programs; (d) reduce enrollment barriers resulting from citizenship and identity documentation requirements; and (e) expand the ability of Medicaid to reach working-age adults who have lost jobs and insurance coverage due to the recession.

This last option, which was previously passed by Congress to help in New York following the 9/11 attacks and in the Gulf states following Hurricane Katrina, would fit nicely with the efforts already underway in Pennsylvania to expand the adultBasic Program.