The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma today said that it is unlikely that lifetime limits on Medicaid enrollment will be approved. Verma, participating in The Washington Post’s live stream health care forum, went on to say that CMS wants to make sure that Medicaid is a safety net and there’s a place for people to go when they need it.
Federal officials last week denied Kansas’ request to implement the first-ever lifetime limits on Medicaid coverage, giving an indication of just how far the administration will go with states’ waiver requests. Kansas, which already has some of the strictest Medicaid eligibility levels in the nation for non-disabled adults, wanted to limit thousands of low-income parents to three years of benefits. States including Utah, Arizona and Wisconsin have similar requests pending.
