House Lawmaker’s Bill Would Add $15 Billion Annually to Highway Trust Fund
Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) introduced legislation this month that he said would add up to $15 billion a year to the Highway Trust Fund over the next decade through changes to the Medicaid expansion match rates established under President Obama’s signature health-care law.
Specifically, the "Prioritizing American Roads and Jobs Act” would take Medicaid expansion and roll back the reimbursements from the program. Meaning, instead of a 100% match rate on able-bodied, working-age adults receiving Medicaid expansion benefits, the measure would roll the reimbursement to traditional Medicaid rates. That averages 56% cost on the federal side, while states pick up 44% of the cost, according to the congressman’s office.
“Obamacare is complicated, but undoing an egregious flaw in the Medicaid expansion component of the law should not be,” Westerman said in a statement. “The bill I introduced … would free up more than $15 billion per year in mandatory spending that is going only to the three out of five states that expanded Medicaid. And estimates show this change could save $300 billion over 10 years. Roughly one-half could be used to build and fix roads in all 50 states while the rest could be used to reduce our national budget deficit.”
The measure was sent to the Energy and Commerce Committee.
