The Rockefeller Institute of Government hosted “Medicaid for More?,” a forum with the authors of Medicaid Buy-In: Questions of Purpose and Design and a panel of health and policy leaders on February 25 to discuss the details of Medicaid buy-in programs and other healthcare reform proposals.

“We’re seeing these Medicaid buy-in ideas and these public option ideas sort of just exploding in the public policy space now,” said John Kaelin, visiting fellow at the Rockefeller Institute and an author of the report.

Kaelin and co-author Katherine Hempstead, senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, presented an overview of their report and the broader context of healthcare reform, then moderated a panel discussion followed by a Q&A session.

“Right now we’re experiencing a period in healthcare and health reform where there’s a lot of creativity but also a lot of dissatisfaction,” Hempstead said. “We are seeing expanded calls for increased coverage, increased access, and increased affordability. And some of those calls are for things that would really disrupt our current paradigm and create a sort of different system altogether.”

The moderators and panelists discussed in detail the merits and mechanisms of Medicaid buy-in and other proposals — what they accomplish in terms of expanding coverage, who they expand eligibility to, implications for affordability, implementation challenges and opportunities, and federalism issues at play.

The panelists included:

+ Amir Bassiri, senior policy advisor for health to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

+ Courtney Burke, chief operating & innovation officer at the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS)

+ Lev Ginsburg, senior director of government affairs at the Business Council of New York State, Inc.

+ Lara Kassel, coordinator at Medicaid Matters NY

+ Dan Meuse, deputy director of State Health and Value Strategies at Princeton University

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