Texas always has to be dragged kicking and screaming to do things that are right. I am thankful that the FEDS are grabbing them by the scruff and pushing them forward.
Texas Tribune 6/29/12
Guest Column: by Anne Dunkelberg
Health Reform Ruling is Good for TX
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Some Texas specifics: Texans already benefiting can hold on to those gains seniors paying lower drug costs and getting preventive tests with no out-of-pocket costs, kids with pre-existing conditions enrolled in coverage, young adults on their parents insurance plan and millions whose insurance no longer has lifetime limits. After todays decision, Texans whose insurers spent less than 80 cents of every premium dollar on health care in 2011 will still get $167 million in refunds this summer because of the ACA.
Experts best estimates are that even moderate sign-up for the 2014 coverage expansions through both Medicaid and sliding-scale premium help with private insurance will cut the number of uninsured Texans in half. (Currently, 6.2 million Texans don't have health coverage.) And the new coverage will be financed overwhelmingly by the federal government. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission's own estimates project that the Medicaid expansion between 2014 and 2019 would bring $76 billion new federal dollars to the state, with Texas putting up about $6 billion from the state budget for our share of the Medicaid expansion. That $6 billion over six years is far less than Texas hospitals now spend on the uninsured in a single year, largely with local property tax dollars.
Of course, the wild card in todays decision is that states that fail to implement the Medicaid expansion (covering adults to 133 percent of the poverty line, or $25,390 for a family of three), will not be subject to losing their entire Medicaid program. In Texas today, 2.5 million children have Medicaid, but fewer than 10 percent of their parents are covered. Without the Medicaid expansion, uninsured adults below poverty will simply be left uninsured, and seeking care from our public hospitals. Despite the hard evidence of the economic benefit to Texas, our current leaderships opposition to the ACA signals that a major campaign will be needed for our state to take the smart step. And advocates are ready for that challenge.