Thanks to the more than thirty national organizations that joined CCF in expressing our opposition to Arizona’s request to waive the maintenance of effort provisions that are currently preserving stability in states’ Medicaid programs.  Groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Easter Seals, Families USA, the National Association of Community Health Centers, First Focus and Children’s Defense Fund voiced their opposition to the waiver request. 

The group letter stated that allowing a state to eliminate health coverage for 280,000 people would be an inappropriate exercise of Section 1115 waiver authority.  Section 1115 waivers were designed to test and evaluate new and innovative approaches to providing health care to Medicaid beneficiaries and other low-income individuals that further the objectives of the Medicaid program.

HHS Secretary Sebelius has recently said that it is unclear if she has the legal authority to grant a waiver in this case as Arizona’s Medicaid eligibility policies in question were approved through a state ballot initiative rather than legislative action.  In any event, waivers reflect policy choices at both the federal and state level, and the signers of the letter do not believe that granting this waiver would be in keeping with the objectives of the Medicaid program.