Waiver Approval Means 600,000 People Can Stay on Michigan’s Medicaid Expansion
The federal government has provided the second and final waiver needed to continue the Healthy Michigan program.
About 600,000 Michiganders will be able to stay on the state’s expanded Medicaid program.
The Healthy Michigan plan got a critical waiver approval from the federal government on Thursday.
The part of the program that needed approval requires participants with incomes between 100 and 133 percent of the federal poverty level to work with doctors to get healthier. Otherwise, they will have to get their insurance through the federal health care exchange. That requirement begins in April of 2018.
“What’s really different is the emphasis on healthy incentives and healthy behaviors that allow us to move our plan to one that’s more preventative in nature and less reactive,” said Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon during a press call.
“Which is significant. It’s innovative. And we’re a leader when it comes to this concept.”
This is the second and final waiver that was needed to continue the Healthy Michigan program.
