Current healthcare reform legislation would require states in the program to expand their individual programs to cover additional poor, disabled and elderly Americans. At present, Nevada spends 30 percent of its general fund on the program, according to the report.
While the cost of expanding the program would be federally subsidized until 2013, Nevada estimates that the expanded program will cost the state $636 million from 2004-2019, according to the report.
If Nevada was to opt-out of the Medicaid program, enrollees in the program would instead receive federal subsidies to obtain private insurance on healthcare exchanges. However, some argue that subsidies would not cover the entire cost of obtaining coverage.
Gov. Gibbons stated that he is only considering the possibility of an opt-out at this point but the move signals the Republican Governor’s increasing wariness of federal health reform efforts.
Read the Las Vegas Sun’s report on a possible Nevada Medicaid opt-out.
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