RALEIGH — The House earlier today resoundingly rejected the Senate’s version of a Medicaid overhaul bill, and the expectation is that, far from killing reform this year, it’s a signal that serious negotiations will evolve.
While speculation is rampant that the General Assembly will pass a compromise $21.3 billion budget, then recess for several months while Medicaid discussions continue, no officials have confirmed it.
“I’m sure a conference committee will be appointed [to reconcile the Medicaid dispute], and they will determine the next steps,” said Amy Auth, a spokeswoman for Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham.
“I haven’t seen the adjournment resolution yet, so we’ll just have to see what it does say” about the schedule after the budget is passed, said Sen. Louis Pate, R-Wayne. He is co-chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee and a member of the joint Medicaid Reform Advisory Group.
“We’ve got some alternatives that I couldn’t speak to right now, but I think we will have ample opportunity to talk with each other, and get our point across, and letting them get their point across,” Pate said. “They don’t like what we’ve done. We’re going to do a little missionary work with them, so we’ll see where we go.”
“All things are possible,” Pate said of striking a Medicaid compromise this year. Removing Medicaid reform from the budget was a wise move, he said. “That was too big of a policy issue to have it in the budget.”
Pate said the House’s unanimous rejection did not surprise him because the House passed its version of the bill unanimously before the Senate rewrote the bill.
“By voting strongly like that I think it means that they want to have a conference. I can’t say what’s really on their mind but I don’t have any pretenses going in to think it’s a dead deal,” Pate said. “I think we can do some real negotiating now. If we can sit down together and reason through with each other, we can negotiate some things.”
Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, indicated Tuesday, during a joint press conference called to announce a budget framework agreement, that Medicaid reform remains a major goal.
“We’ll appoint conferees and we are hopeful that we’ll be able to get something worked out,” Berger said.
“We’re in consistent negotiations, discussions with the governor and the department [of Health and Human Services] as well, because we value their input, we think they’re an important part of the process,” Tillis said.
In calling Wednesday for the House to reject the rewritten bill, state Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, who also was a member of the joint Medicaid Reform Advisory Group, said the Senate changes were dramatic.
“Obviously, it is not in any position with which the values of this chamber would be in concurrence,” Dollar said.
The House version received “a united vote in the Appropriations Committee, and it was a united vote on the floor of this House,” Dollar said. “With all due humility, it was a united vote among stakeholders, patients, and advocates, all across this state to move forward and make the changes that are necessary to achieve the goals that this state needs to achieve in its Medicaid program.”
“We sent it over there with 100 percent support, we need to send it back with 100 percent support” in opposition to the changes, said state Rep. William Brisson, D-Bladen.
Dan E. Way (@danway_carolina) is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.