CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Consultants at the Lewin Group say the number of uninsured residents in New Hampshire could drop by about 24 percent, to 71,000, by 2020 if the state adopts the Medicaid expansion approach promoted by the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
PPACA calls for states to make Medicaid available to all residents, including adults, earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level.
Originally, PPACA called for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reduce the amount of federal Medicaid support available to states that failed to expand their Medicaid programs.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2012 that Congress has the authority to use new streams of funding to shape state behavior but cannot make major cuts in existing funding streams to force states to expand their Medicaid programs.
The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services hired the Lewin Group, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, to study the pros and cons of expanding Medicaid after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Medicaid expansion is optional.
In the first phase of the study, the Lewin Group consultants focused on the overall cost of Medicaid expansion to the state.
In the second phase, release today, the consultants examined the possible impact of Medicaid expansion on the uninsured, the economy, health care providers and state agencies.
The consultants found that, if New Hampshire leaves its Medicaid program the same, the state could have 93,000 uninsured residents in 2020.
At press time, a copy of the report was not yet available on the Web.
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