
Juneau, Alaska (AP) - Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy told President Donald Trump that the state is open to the idea of receiving Medicaid funding through fixed amounts each year.
Dunleavy spokesman Matt Shuckerow tells Alaska Public Media that the block grant approach could allow the state more flexibility in how it spends Medicaid funding.
The Republican governor wrote in a letter to the president last month that Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, had urged the state to become the first receive the federal funding this way.
The federal government currently pays an agreed-upon percentage of each state's Medicaid costs.
The government program provides health care to people with lower income. More than a quarter of the state's population is covered by Medicaid.