New Hampshire has become the sixth state to get permission to expand Medicaid its own way instead of following federal rules.
Like some of the other states with alternative Medicaid expansions, low-income New Hampshire residents who don’t qualify for the state’s traditional Medicaid program may use federal dollars to buy private health plans on the state’s online insurance marketplace starting in 2016.
About 36,000 people will qualify for the program, according to state officials.
The Affordable Care Act allows states to expand traditional Medicaid coverage to individuals earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level if they choose, with the federal government paying the bulk of the new costs.
But Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana — and now New Hampshire— have gotten permission to use those extra federal dollars in alternative ways, like allowing Medicaid recipients to use them to buy private plans and requiring them to pay part of the premiums.
New Hampshire asked the Obama administration for a waiver in November, and this week Gov. Maggie Hassan announced that it was approved. The state has been offering a transition program called the Voluntary Bridge to Marketplace as it awaited a response. The new program will be called the New Hampshire Health Protection Program to distinguish it from the state’s traditional Medicaid program, which covers about 137,000 residents.
“Because of our bipartisan healthcare expansion plan, more than 36,000 hard-working Granite Staters now have the peace of mind and financial security that comes with quality, affordable health insurance,” Hassan said in a statement.
