From the Trib:
It’s constitutional – deal with it
State health officials confirmed Tuesday they have asked the Obama administration to keep a 15-month lifeline of federal Medicaid money flowing into Texas to help hospitals treat uninsured patients.
That money would offer temporary relief to health care providers who face losing the funds — some $3.1 billion annually — over state leaders’ refusal to provide government-subsidized health coverage to low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health law.
Federal officials previously signaled they would stop footing the bill for at least some of Texas’ costs for “uncompensated care” — the burden on hospitals when patients can’t pay for their visits. Under the Affordable Care Act, Texas was encouraged to expand its Medicaid program to cover nearly 1 million additional adults living in poverty — a move that would have given more poor patients a means to pay for care. The state’s Republican leadership has vehemently opposed that option, criticizing Medicaid as an inefficient government program.
[…]
First created as a $29 billion pot of money paid to Texas health care providers over five years, about 40 percent of that money came from local funds — mostly property tax dollars — and 60 percent from the federal government. The Obama administration approved the program in 2011, and it was set to expire in September.
By asking for the program to be renewed for a significantly shorter timeframe, state health officials indicated that they expect the federal government will be reluctant to continue handing out cash to reimburse hospitals for patients who can’t pay for their visits. Federal health officials have repeatedly told state leaders they have no desire to use waiver funds to pay for costs that would otherwise be covered by a Medicaid expansion.
In Florida, the Obama administration recently agreed to extend a similar source of hospital funding in that state, but only for two years and at a significantly reduced rate. That arrangement diminished the state’s low-income pool by about 50 percent for the first year and 70 percent for the second.
See here and here for some background, and here for a copy of the letter. This is the 1115 waiver, and I’ve been rooting for the feds to tell Texas to go pound sand unless they expand Medicaid. This is at least a step in that direction.
And from Think Progress:
The Obama Administration just sent a strong signal to states trying to defund Planned Parenthood, warning all 50 states that attempts to strip Medicaid funding from the women’s health care provider is most likely illegal.
The letter, sent to each state’s Medicaid director, cautions lawmakers that “providing the full range of women’s health services… shall not be grounds for a state’s action against a provider in the Medicaid program.” In other words, the fact Planned Parenthood provides abortion services in addition to other women’s health services is not legal grounds to cut it off from Medicaid funding. It stipulates that the only justifiable reason to remove a provider’s Medicaid funding is if that provider isn’t able to bill for or perform covered medical services.
“Once again, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has made it clear that it’s illegal for politicians to tell women where they can and cannot go for care,” said Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, in a statement.
[…]
The Obama Administration has warned specific states before that cutting off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood may violate federal law, but this is the first time that they have sent a letter to every state in the country.
As we know, Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit against Texas after it announced it was cutting PP out of any program it hadn’t already cut them out of as punishment for those faked videos by the fraudsters Daleiden and Merritt. I don’t know what effect, if any, this federal action will have on that, but I do know we could easily solve all these problems (and more) if Texas would expand Medicaid and obey the law. It’s all so simple, really.
Charles, Fort Bend has really done some great things with 1115 and the Charity Hospital in my precinct really needs that reimbursement money. While I agree the knuckleheads at the Leg need to accept the expansion, please don’t root too hard for non-extended 1115.
Commissioner Morrison, I certainly understand. Rep. Garnet Coleman is a big fan of the 1115 waivers, and I have a lot of respect for him. But what else can the feds do? At some point, they need to make the choice as painfully clear as they can to our benighted leaders.