From the Houston Chronicle Saturday edition:
It’s constitutional – deal with it
State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, called Harris Health’s impending budget shortfall “one more casualty of Texas not participating in the Medicaid expansion.
“We could at least stop the bleeding if we had the additional Medicaid funding,” said Coleman. “Treating people without insurance cards, particularly county hospitals but private hospitals, too, is not sustainable in this era.”
Coleman added that budget problems at Harris Health and other county hospital agencies will give legislative advocates of Medicaid expansion ammunition this session. He said he is hopeful a Texas solution will be reached.
A spokesman for Gov.-elect Greg Abbott, however, told National Review Online on Friday that Abbott has no intention of expanding Medicaid in Texas, despite recent indications that he might be open to some kind of compromise.
“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,” said the spokeswoman, Amelia Chasse.
And from the Sunday Chronicle editorials:
In this fire engine-red state, could it be that common sense and good public policy might actually prevail over lock-step ideology and ramrod political rigidity? We can’t say for sure, but there are encouraging signs on the eve of a new governor’s inauguration that Texas, with more uninsured than any other state, may be looking for a way to expand Medicare under Obamacare, thereby making health insurance available to nearly a million working-poor Texans who currently aren’t covered.
Soon-to-be former Gov. Rick Perry and the Republican-led Legislature remain adamant naysayers, which means that more than a million Texans have been left without insurance they could have received by expanding Medicaid. Surprisingly, Governor-elect Greg Abbott seems at least open to the possibility of a Texas-tailored plan that would allow billions of dollars in federal funding to begin flowing into the state during the next 10 years. Hospitals and health-care providers, business groups and chambers of commerce, local and county governments and numerous other organizations and individuals have called for an end to the shortsightedness, which not only denies health coverage to needy Texans but also blocks billions of dollars that could be flowing to local economies.
I believe the proper expression here is “Oops!” And let that be a lesson about Greg Abbott, and what to believe about him.