Sponsors (2)
This bill restores longstanding Section 1115 waiver rules and reduces targeted federal spending, trading greater statutory clarity and lower federal outlays against the loss of demonstration funding and reduced flexibility that could harm Medicaid beneficiaries and strain providers.
State governments, HHS administrators, hospitals/health systems, and Medicaid beneficiaries: Restores the pre-119–21 interpretation of Section 1115 waivers and eliminates the special statutory modification, returning waiver budget-neutrality rules to longstanding law and simplifying program administration and legal certainty.
Taxpayers and the federal budget: Rescinds the specific amounts appropriated under §71118(b), reducing previously earmarked federal outlays and lowering near‑term federal spending tied to those demonstrations.
Hospitals, providers, and state program managers: Reinstating longstanding statutory text reduces regulatory uncertainty about how Section 1115 is applied, which can simplify compliance and planning.
Medicaid beneficiaries and state demonstration participants: Removes funding created by §71118(b), which could reduce resources available for certain Section 1115 demonstration activities and limit services or supports those demonstrations provided.
Medicaid beneficiaries (particularly those in programs that relied on the §71118 modification): Reverting waiver budget-neutrality rules to prior law may limit state flexibility or change coverage/benefit arrangements, potentially reducing access or altering benefits.
Hospitals and providers: Loss of the appropriated funds could reduce financial support tied to demonstrations, increasing uncompensated care and administrative strain for health systems that participated in or relied on those demonstrations.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Repeals a recent change to Medicaid section 1115 law, restores prior application of section 1115, and rescinds the specific appropriation created by that change.
Introduced April 9, 2026 by Brittany Pettersen · Last progress April 9, 2026
Repeals a recent change to federal Medicaid demonstration law and cancels the specific funds Congress had set aside for that change. It directs that the Medicaid section 1115 rules be applied as if the intervening provision had never been enacted, restoring prior-law treatment of 1115 waivers and removing the appropriation tied to the repealed provision. The bill does not create new programs; it withdraws a statutory budget-neutrality requirement and the associated appropriation that were added by a prior law, which affects how states and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) treat section 1115 demonstrations and the availability of the previously appropriated dollars.