A Michigan healthcare policy expert says it will take time to analyze the potential impact on the state of the proposed Republican replacement for Obamacare.
Dennis Paradis is Executive Director of the Michigan Health Policy Forum.
He says he’s concerned about the impact of its eventual cap on federal funding of Medicaid.
About 630,000 Michigan residents have purchased health insurance because the Affordable Care Act led to Medicaid expansion in the state.
The Healthy Michigan program is funded almost completely with federal subsidies.
“Clearly, people who leave the Healthy Michigan program will be eligible to come back into the Medicaid program," he says, "but the feds will be paying less for their involvement so the state will be paying more.”
Paradis says it’s difficult to know how that will play out.
Two days into the process, Democrats and conservative Republicans alike are critical of the measure.