According to a report published by the National Conference of State Legislatures, almost 30 states, including Colorado, balanced their budgets relying on Congress to extend the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) enhancement that has been in place since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was passed. The FMAP is the amount of Medicaid support the federal government provides to states. Prior to ARRA, Colorado received a 50:50 match. With the ARRA bump, Colorado has been receiving about a 60:40 match. This FMAP boost to states is set to expire December 2010. As previously stated, close to 30 states believed Congress would extend the FMAP bump through June 2011, since most state budget cycles are from July 1 – June 30.

Prior to the Memorial Day recess, the House passed the Tax Extenders bill, which orignially included extention of the FMAP, but due to political pressure and not wanting to add to the federal deficit, the bill that was passed did not include extending the FMAP increase. The Senate is expected to debate and vote on the bill this week. If the Senate does not include an FMAP extension, Colorado will be approximately $130 million short for FY10-11 as the budget was balanced including the increased FMAP. What sort of cuts this would mean for our state is unknown. Stay tuned to see what the Senate does this week…….