Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — ASG Medicaid director Sandra King-Young has been making the rounds in Washington D.C., meeting earlier this week with Congressional committees with jurisdiction over the federal Medicaid program speaking about two issues important to American Samoa.

One issue is the status of the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) for Medicaid. The federal matching percentage of 67% for American Samoa, ends in early December, according to a statement released on the American Samoa Medicaid State Agency Facebook page.

It says that after December, the territory returns to its regular 55% FMAP, plus the enhanced 6.2% from the U.S. President's COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration that is anticipated to rollover into 2023.

Responding to Samoa News follow-up questions, King-Young said yesterday that the FMAP issue is certain to be extended as it has been extended in three previous federal measures. “But the territorial Delegates to the U.S House have this on their radar so that should be fine,” she said via email from Washington D.C.

Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata announced in a press release on Wednesday that she and other territorial Delegates joined together in a bipartisan letter urging the U.S House leadership to renew the current Medicaid match rate for the territories. (See yesterday’s Samoa News edition for the press release details.)

King-Young also met with U.S. Senate Finance Committee staffer Stuart Portman with whom she has worked for 4 years on Medicaid issues. Other Congressional committees, the Medicaid director said she worked with on Medicaid issues are the House Energy and Commerce committees. These are the two committees that have key jurisdiction on Medicaid, said King-Young.

The second issue, which is of “significance” is King-Young’s request to committees and Uifa’atali’s Office to include Medicaid coverage eligibility for “American Samoa Permanent Residents”.

American Samoa permanent residents have lived in American Samoa for 20-plus years paying local taxes and contributing to the economic, social and community development of the territory, said King-Young.

“Only American Samoa has American Samoa permanent residents so this issue is specific to our jurisdiction only,” she explained. “American Samoa permanent residents, like non-residents, are only eligible for emergency services coverage under Medicaid.”

“The American Samoa Permanent Resident eligibility issue can only be addressed by Congress,” she explained, adding that she has submitted this as a request for consideration to Uifa’atali’s office through her staff in previous years.

“Now I have made this request directly to the congressional committees with jurisdiction over Medicaid. As with any legislative effort, I don't know what the result will be but at Gov. Lemanu P.S. Mauga’s request to help our permanent residents, I have submitted this request to the Senate committee and our Delegate's office,” King-Young explained.

“This is absolutely a Medicaid coverage issue and I hope that it will get some traction this year, and if not we have to keep trying every year,” she said.

“This is what we did for the Medicaid funding and now we have taken the annual capped Medicaid funding from $11 million in 2019 to $86 million that is now a permanent funding level.”

King-Young said she also had a lunch meeting with Richard Stanton of the Congresswoman’s office and shared the same issues with him on the FMAP extension and the American Samoa Permanent Residents issues.

She acknowledged the support of the Congresswoman’s Office, and especially ASG’s representative in D.C., Taylor Strategies “who coordinates all my Medicaid meetings in D.C and provides support on legislative strategy.” 

(Taylor Strategies is a full-service government relations firm that offers a complement of services – from strategic advice and counsel to coalition-building and direct lobbying, according to the company’s website https://www.taylor-strategies.com)