A couple of weeks ago Texas Governor Rick Perry was in Washington giving a speech to the Republican Party’s Capitol Hill Club which was repeatedly disrupted by protesters who are upset with Perry about his refusal to expand Medicaid and the state’s highest-in-the-nation rate of uninsured residents.
Perry, who strongly opposed the Affordable Care Act while campaigning for president in 2012 said, “Let me go on the record here for a moment; we’re not going to be expanding Medicaid in Texas. The reason is because it’s a broken system. It’s moving our state, and I’ll just speak to our state, towards bankruptcy if we expand the current program.”
Perry joked the protesters were from Alabama, saying, “I greatly respected those individuals from Alabama out here who are letting us know their feelings,” he said, smiling. “But the fact is you don’t have to come to the state of Texas you, can go somewhere else if that is what you want.” When one protester responded, “Actually, these people are from Houston, Texas,” Perry responded, “I’m pretty sure you’re from Alabama.” (Houston Chronicle)
Here are the facts Perry ignores:
A recent analysis conducted for Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare found that Medicaid expansion to cover all low-income adults is a good deal for states. (A study by Arkansas’ Department of Human Services found much the same thing.) The Idaho study estimates that the expansion would actually save the state $6.5 million from 2014 through 2024. That’s because state and local spending on health care services for the uninsured will fall by roughly $792 million over that period if Idaho expands Medicaid — since many uninsured residents will get health care services through Medicaid — while the federal government will pay the vast majority of the added Medicaid costs. (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
In addition, If all states expand their Medicaid programs in 2014, nearly half of the nation’s uninsured veterans would gain a pathway to affordable health care coverage. 10 percent of the nation’s 12.5 million non-elderly veterans do not have health coverage. Nearly half of uninsured veterans have incomes below 138 percent of the poverty line, which would make them eligible for Medicaid if their states choose to adopt health reform’s Medicaid expansion. Another 40 percent of uninsured veterans (with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty line) will likely qualify for subsidized exchange coverage. (Urban Institute)
The Medicaid expansion will add very little to what states would have spent on Medicaid without health reform, while providing health coverage to 17 million more low-income adults and children. In addition, the Medicaid expansion will reduce state and local government costs for uncompensated care and other services they provide to the uninsured, which will offset at least some — and in a number of states, possibly all or more than all — of the modest increase in state Medicaid costs. Expanding Medicaid is thus a very favorable financial deal for states. (Congressional Budget Office)
Many health care providers and advocates for the poor say Texas should capture the $100.1 billion in federal Medicaid money offered over the next decade, if only for economic reasons. Texas would have to put up only $15.6 billion, they note. For the adults, the federal government will pay 100 percent of the costs for three years, starting in January, and at least 90 percent thereafter. Because next year’s rollout of a state health insurance exchange is expected to cause many parents to check their options, hundreds of thousands of children now eligible for — but not enrolled in — Medicaid are expected to be added to the program. That part of the expansion will happen no matter what the decision is about adults. For the youngsters, as for all other current recipients, the federal government in Texas pays 59 percent of the costs.
Overall, the deal works out to more than $6 of federal funds for every $1 of state tax money spent, according to estimates by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Texas has a higher share of its population lacking coverage — 24 percent — than any other state. (Dallas Morning News)
Perry’s Medicaid policy could cause at least one million more vulnerable Texans to lose all health-insurance coverage. Perry is simply putting up a roadblock for unfounded partisan reasons. The fact is that Texas would receive roughly $100 billion in federal funds over 10 years, starting next year, at a cost to the state of $15 billion. Perry is playing fast and loose with the facts. He needs to spend more time studying the facts than bloviating and for that he is a butthead. Just one day more...