PPACA program appeals to Medicaid expansion fans

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an arm of HHS, has not said much about the Basic Health Program, but it recently got the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to renew approval for the efforts to gather the information CMS and states will need to set up Basic Health Program plans.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services is asking for comments on the draft it created for turning its basic health plan into a PPACA-compliant, federally funded Basic Health Plan. A year ago, some state and federal officials were saying they would go slow on setting up Basic Health Program plans because of concerns that competition from the plans would hurt the launch of the PPACA public exchange system.

In the draft blue print, Minnesota officials sketch out the process they would use to move people between QHPs and Basic Health Program plans, but officials don’t talk about how the state basic health program has affected the state’s exchange program and exchange plan issuers, or how a PPACA-compliant Basic Health Program might affect the exchange and its QHP issuers.

Officials in California, Hawaii, New York state and West Virginia have also talked about setting up Basic Health Program plans.