COVID Relief Bill could help the Medicaid qualified in Texas

[Satchel 6,908]

...if we could get the Republicans to stop punishing the poor for being poor:

 

 A little-known part of the pandemic relief bill that President Biden signed into law last week includes a big incentive for Texas to expand Medicaid to more low-income people.

The American Rescue Plan Act includes a two-year increase in federal funding for states that expand their Medicaid programs. Texas is one of just 12 states that still haven't decided to expand the program, which mostly serves children, people with disabilities and low-income older adults.

The federal government typically picks up about 62% of the costs of Texas’ Medicaid program, although it’s been a bit more during the pandemic because of past relief bills. 

If Texas expands its program, the federal government would take on an extra 5% of the program’s costs, according to Anne Dunkelberg, who oversees health care policy for the public policy think tank Every Texan.

“The new plan says to the 12 states like Texas that haven’t expanded Medicaid that if you do it, we are going to give you a great big bonus,” she said.

Dunkelberg said this bonus could amount to about $5 billion over two years, according to some estimates. 
 

https://www.kut.org/health/2021-03-19/congress-gave-texas-an-incentive-to-expand-medicaid-in-the-latest-pandemic-relief-bill-will-it-act

“Medicaid is by far the hugest source of federal funds in every state’s state budget — not just Texas,” she said. “So when you make changes as big as 5 percentage points, it brings an enormous amount of funding into the state.”

Texas has long had the highest rate and number of uninsured people in the country. Experts have partly blamed this on the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid to more low-income people through the Affordable Care Act. The 2010 federal health care law pays a whopping 90% of the expanded program.

Dunkelberg said there’s a large body of research that has found that expanding the program would be “cost neutral or even save money for the state budget.”

There is also evidence that expanding Medicaid has reduced health disparities, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Latinos and Black Americans have been significantly more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 compared to white Americans.

Congressman Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat who represents parts of Austin, said it’s “foolish” that Texas lawmakers have refused to expand the program thus far.

“We have included a financial incentive for Texas to do this,” he said. “I hope the timing of the incentive … will get the coverage that we should have had long ago in Texas.”

It’s estimated between 1.4 million to 1.5 million low-income Texans could gain health insurance under an expanded Medicaid program. Experts also expect that number has likely grown during the pandemic because so many Texans have lost health insurance in the past year.

[elfenix 34,172]

shit in one hand...

[washparkhorn 9,935]

Leaving infrastructure on the table. 

Dumb. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,414]

As pandemic protections are being dropped, Texas had 600K residents dropped from Medicaid since April.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/medicaid-texas-loss-of-coverage-18334284.php

Quote

More than 600,000 Medicaid recipients in Texas have lost coverage since April, a 72% disenrollment rate that dwarfed a 36% rate in neighboring Louisiana and 41% in New Mexico.

Let's jump to a live look of this news being discussed at the governor's mansion.