Del. Sablan: $120 Million for Marianas Medicaid

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 -- Del. Gregorio Sablan, D-Northern Mariana Islands, issued the following information:

Marianas Medicaid funding increases from $7 million to $60 million both this year and next. The House passed the necessary legislation Tuesday. The Senate followed Thursday. In addition, the local match the Commonwealth will pay is reduced from 45 to 17 percent, a better local rate than any U.S. state. This congressional action avoids a funding "cliff," as special Obamacare grants to the insular areas ended this year.

To keep the Marianas program solvent I lobbied the Department of Health and Human Services for an $8.2 million supplemental award in May and added $36 million to the disaster spending bill in June. And I spoke personally to Speaker Nancy Pelosi to get us into this week's bill. All of the U.S. insular areas received new funding. But the Marianas got the largest percentage increase.

The $120 million is good news for the 15,000 plus people in the Marianas who have Medicaid. Their health insurance will continue; and the services they receive can now be more like other Americans'. This is also good news for everyone who uses the Commonwealth Healthcare Center, which could close without the 44 percent of its revenue that comes from Medicaid.

And it's good news for private health care providers in the Marianas, who in June were barred from serving Medicaid patients. With $60 million now available, I urge the Governor to allow our Medicaid patients to use private practice clinics and pharmacies again. That will make those businesses more economically viable and strengthen the entire health care system in our islands.