By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON — A bill now on pause in the West Virginia House of Delegates could put the state between a rock and a hard place: deciding on what to do should the federal government reduce the state’s match for Medicaid expansion.
On one hand, doing nothing could blow a multi-million-dollar hole in the state’s general revenue budget and cause short-term issues with funding other needs within the Department of Human Services. On the other, passing a bill to end West Virginia’s Medicaid expansion program if the federal government reduces the state match could bump 170,000 people off their health insurance and create ripple effects within the state’s rural health care system.
