This should put a stake through the heart of these stories.
It’s constitutional – deal with it
Governor-Elect Greg Abbott (R., Texas) will not expand Medicaid despite hopes by Obamacare supporters that he would do so following a report that he inquired about Utah’s variation of the health program.
“Fear not — Governor-elect Abbott has fought Obamacare and will continue to fight against it. He believes the ACA is not the best option for patients, doctors or taxpayers,” spokeswoman Amelia Chasse tells National Review Online in a statement. “Greg Abbott believes that Texas should be able to address our unique health-care situation without federal interference, putting patients and doctors in charge of health-care decisions.”
Abbott and his team “were surprised” to read a Houston Chronicle article that construed his request for information about Utah’s compromise with the federal government as a statement of interest in bringing Obamacare to Texas, according to one source close to Abbott’s team.
“His position has been grossly mischaracterized,” the source tells NRO. The confusion traces back to a report that Abbott had “asked for more information” about the Healthy Utah plan, which is Republican Governor Gary Herbert’s way of expanding Medicaid in his state. Abbott inquired about it not because he might replicate the model in Texas, but because it was mentioned in the conversation and he was ignorant about the Utah plan.
I hate to say I told you so, but…actually, I don’t hate having to say I told you so. I still don’t understand where this little groundswell came from, because there has never been anything in Abbott’s record or rhetoric to suggest he is capable of being anything but a reflexive, predictable ideologue. He differs from Dan Patrick only in tone, not in substance. The next time anyone reads a story like the ones that were suggesting Abbott was “open” to some form of Medicaid expansion, ask yourself if you can imagine Patrick saying it. If it’s not something Danno would have said, it’s very likely not something Abbott would have said.
By the way, Abbott’s rigid ideology continues to have real world consequences for many people. This is who he is.
In this case, then, I will interpret “Greg Abbott believes that Texas should be able to address our unique health-care situation without federal interference” to mean “Greg Abbott will not be addressing the health insurance of Texans at all.”
I had heard about the “gap,” but until I experienced it firsthand, I had no idea just how big a gap it is.
I am recently unemployed, currently making $0. As I have discovered in recent weeks, turns out this is TOO LITTLE to be eligible for Obamacare’s tax breaks/subsidies. Presumably because they think that anyone making $0 will be on Medicaid? But here in Texas, even making $0 does not make this unemployed single father eligible for Medicaid. I have spoken with someone in HHS, and the told me there is no way – at any income – for me to get Medicaid in Texas, UNLESS I apply for it for my sons, too. My sons already have insurance, so this means that I would have to apply for health coverage I don’t need (presumably this would costTexas some money) in order to get what I do need.
Or, I could increase my income thereby making me eligible for Obamacare. Never mind that if I had more income, I would have less need for the subsidies.
I am baffled. I thought all this was about helping people get insurance. I know why Texas does this (it is evil). What I can’t figure is why Congress put a minimum income on eligibility in the first place.