In the wake of a federal funding freeze, advocates and officials are urging Congress to reconsider proposals to roll back what they say is crucial support of social services and programs.
From the child welfare system to services for people with disabilities and the aging population — hundreds of thousands of Arizonans could be affected.
The federal government helps states pay for Medicaid through a formula that varies by state and program. In Arizona, the federal government covers half those costs overall, and as much as 90% to the full amount for some populations. But there's a national proposal to lower that support.
AHCCCS Director Carmen Heredia explained that requirements baked into state law would force them to make program cuts.
“We would then have to make those changes and have a decision to make: Should we cover this population as a state? Should we backfill some of this funding loss? I'm told that that's not possible,” Heredia said.
Heredia said rolling back support that far would trigger state laws that would dry up another level of funding.
“Hundreds of thousands of Arizonans losing their access to healthcare,” Gov. Katie Hobbs said. “Rural hospitals having to close because they're back-providing a level of uncompensated care that they can’t sustain, which is where we were when we passed Medicaid expansion to begin with.”
Heredia said the cuts are expected to affect between $1.5 billion to $2 billion in Medicaid funding, as well as other programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Wesley Tharpe with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that historically, the federal government has covered SNAP benefits.
“If Arizona had to pay 25% of the cost of SNAP benefits,” he said, “that would require around another $500 million a year to support that same level of services, which I, again, based on revenue trends and the size of other state necessities, would be something that the state would struggle mightily to fill.”
Tharpe said the center’s researchers estimate that some current proposals could cause more than 900,000 Arizonans to lose some or all of their nutritional assistance.
