HEALTH ABOVE ALL ELSE

Congress Secures Funding for Puerto Rico’s Medicaid Program

Under the deal, Puerto Rico will receive more than $17.6 billion in funding over the next five years.

Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program will stay afloat after Congress reached a deal on Tuesday that would grant it more than $17.6 billion in funding over the next five years, NBC News reported. In the states, Medicaid funding can be adjusted to meet the population’s needs, but U.S. territories like Puerto Rico are given a static allotment of funding that may not be enough to cover costs in times of crisis. Puerto Rico faces double the poverty rate of America’s poorest state, Mississippi, and in 2019, the U.S. government paid for 55 cents per dollar spent by the U.S. territory on Medicaid, but paid 76 cents for every Medicaid dollar in Mississippi, according to NBC. Under the new deal—which is part of a sweeping bill to keep the government funded through September—that amount would increase to 76 cents in Puerto Rico as well. But if the bill for Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program fails to pass this week, NBC reported, then America’s share of the territory’s Medicaid costs will fall to what it was before the pandemic, when states and territories were granted a 6 percent boost in Medicaid funding.