The Texas Medicaid program as it presently exists has reached an unsustainable capacity. The current network of hospitals and physicians who care for our state's Medicaid population has reached a true breaking point. They can no longer welcome new patients under the existing model of coverage.
At the federal, state and local levels, debate has focused on expanding coverage through Medicaid for the nation's un- or underinsured. This has been a question heavy on the hearts of our state government, healthcare providers and those 1.1 million Texas residents still seeking medical coverage across the state.
It is true that Texas stands to gain coverage for a significant number of now-uninsured residents through any healthcare expansion, but an expansion of Medicaid also results in an expansion of patient need.
As it stands, only about 30 percent of Texas physicians are willing to accept new Medicaid patients. Without reforms, those new patients will still find the Texas healthcare system inaccessible for preventive and primary care, leaving them seeking care in emergency rooms at a continued high cost to Texas taxpayers. The state's existing system is broken, and placing more pressure on an already broken system sets us up for a crisis.
The federal government's offer to provide funding to pay for the uninsured to be added to the Medicaid in Texas is effectively intended to cover those persons who are unable to afford insurance and have incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Texas will be mandated to accept a federally driven health insurance exchange in early 2014. Unfortunately, even with a federal insurance exchange in Texas, many people still won't have access to healthcare. Such an exchange subsidy isn't the only needed solution, although it would serve to reduce our state's uncompensated population by a third. A further expansion in healthcare could reduce our state's uncompensated care by up to half.
The case for a Texas solution - Houston Chronicle
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