Title
Calling on the United States Senate to Adopt the Funding Enhancements to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) as Provided in the HEROES Act HR 6800.
Body
WHEREAS, The COVID-19 Pandemic has presented our nation with both an unprecedented health care and economic crises; and
WHEREAS, It appears our nation's states have largely dealt with the current health care crisis. For this we are grateful. Now these same states are left to meet an economic crisis unlike any since the Great Depression - while a secondary health care crisis waits in the wings; and
WHEREAS, Millions of lives have been upended by this pandemic and the concurrent shutdown has devastated economic activity, causing a wave of job losses and ending the longest economic expansion since World War II. April data shows that the U.S. economy lost 20.5 million jobs and the unemployment rate increased to 14.7 percent; and
WHEREAS, The Congressional Budget Office(CBO) estimates that the unemployment rate will average 15 percent during the second and third quarters of 2020, up from less than 4 percent in the first quarter. CBO expects the unemployment rate to decline somewhat but remain at 9.5 percent by the end of 2021 (about 6 percentage points higher than the rate in CBO's economic projection produced in January 2020); and
WHEREAS, Often individuals lose job-based health insurance coverage when they experience job loss. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis shows that by January 2021, when unemployment insurance benefits cease for most people who lost jobs between March 1 and May 2, 2020, nearly 17 million people could be newly eligible for Medicaid; and
WHEREAS, This crescendo of need coincides with a dramatic drop in state revenues. By way of example, Pennsylvania, where we live and work, experienced a 49.7% reduction in revenues in April. Help is desperately needed for the Commonwealth to meet its obligations; and
WHEREAS, In times of economic crises, Federal Medical Ass...
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