GOP health care holdout Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s home state of Alaska is the sole beneficiary of hundreds of millions in additional federal funding included in the revised draft of the health care bill released Thursday.
The money comes out of a $182 billion fund established to help stabilize markets and reduce the burden on consumers. While all states will likely receive some portion of the money, the way in which the bill is structured means Alaska will be the sole recipient of hundreds of millions in extra funding. Murkowski held out support for the original draft of the bill due to its substantial Medicaid cuts, imperiling its prospects for success.
The fund was included in the revised draft of the bill in order to offset the increase in premiums that are expected to result from the inclusion of the Cruz Amendment. The provision, introduced by GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, allows insurers to offer cheaper, less comprehensive plans that don’t meet Obamacare requirements as long as they also offer at least one Obamacare compliant plan. (RELATED: McConnell Tries To Find Middle Ground With Revised Health Care Bill)
The conservative measure will split risk pools because healthier people will likely buy cheaper non-Obamacare compliant plans, leaving the elderly and sick in a separate risk pool with increased premiums.
Murkowski expressed concerns about the original draft of the bill, particularly due to the steep Medicaid cuts and the one year defunding of Planned Parenthood, which was maintained in the most recent draft.
The one provision that appears to benefit Alaska grants an additional 1 percent of the $132 billion insurance stability fund to states with premiums exceeding 75 percent more than the national average. Alaska is the only state that meets that qualification, according to data from the U.S. Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Centers. Should the bill pass in its current form, Alaska will receive $80 million from the fund in 2019, increasing to $140 million annually in 2020 and 2021 and $192 million annually from 2022 to 2026.
The state’s insurers would also receive $150 million annually from the bill’s short-term assistance fund in 2018 and 2019, rising to $100 million in 2020 and 2021, according to Bloomberg News. The state, which has only roughly 0.2 percent of Obamacare enrollees, benefits disproportionately from the funding.
Murkowski remained noncommittal when questioned by reporters Thursday following the release of the revised draft. Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Given her previous hesitancy to accept Alaska-specific federal hand outs, the additional funding isn’t guaranteed to win her support.
“Let’s just say that they do something that’s so Alaska-specific just to, quote, ‘get me,'” Murkowski said in June. “Then you have a nationwide system that doesn’t work. That then comes crashing down and Alaska’s not able to kind of keep it together on its own.”
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