Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is welcoming inclusion of American Samoa’s federal matching rate for Medicaid, known as FMAP, in a Continuing Resolution that would fund the U.S. government until December 16, 2022. This extension would allow Congress time to complete major appropriations, pushing current funding a few months past the official end of the fiscal year.

 “I’m pleased that congressional leadership listened to our recent request and is including our Medicaid federal rate in the C.R. funding bill, and I also support continuing the temporary emergency higher rate,” said Aumua Amata. “Health care is a major priority, and our Medicaid funding is essential to overcoming challenges and ensuring medical care.”

For the past three fiscal years, American Samoa’s Medicaid has been 83 percent funded by the federal government, a rate that Congress passed in 2019 for the start of 2020, which improved inequities with the states and raised the Territory’s federal share in the statute from 55 percent to 83 percent.

Additionally, a separate Biden administration action, based on a presidential COVID emergency declaration, raised that federal share to more than 6 points higher at over 89 percent for most of the past two years. While this temporary 6 percent boost is set to expire in mid-October, the Biden administration has signaled another likely extension, which have been done several times already in 90-day increments.

Earlier in September, each of the Members of Congress from four U.S. Territories joined together in a bipartisan letter to urge House leadership to renew the higher federal Medicaid match rate for the territories.

In 2019, after years of a standard 55-45 percent split, Congress passed the increase to 83 percent for American Samoa, which is the best non-emergency rate in the nation, higher than any of the rates in the 50 states. Representatives of the territories and their governments worked together on this priority.