If President Obama is re-elected in November, governors who have resisted implementing the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion will likely change their minds, according to former government official Tom Scully.
Tom Scully, who served as the administrator for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from 2001-2003, under President George W. Bush, told McKnight’s that funding for healthcare would likely increase if President Obama is re-elected. That’s great news for skilled nursing facilities that are in need of more federal and state money.
“If President Obama gets elected, I think some of the Southern governors who’ve said they’re not going to take the Medicaid money will probably gradually succumb and take it anyway,” Scully said in an interview with McKnight’s Editor Jim Berklan. “If Romney gets elected president, I think you’ll see a whole slowing down of the ACA.”
Scully also cautioned that no matter who wins the election, nursing home operators must do better in convincing lawmakers that Medicaid is key to their survival.
“I am a broken record on this,” he said. “I think nursing homes need to educate people a little more about Medicaid. They get hammered on Medicaid, and they just go back to the Hill and say ‘pay us more in Medicare.”
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