Governor Rick Perry (R-Texas) kept his promise to not expand the state's Medicaid program in an address to the state legislature.
An expansion of the program would add more than 1 million Texans to Medicaid by 2017, with the federal government funding 100 percent of the additional cost for three years and not less than 90 percent after that. Texas currently has the highest uninsured population in the United States.
Gov. Perry said in his prepared remarks the health law's provision to expand the government health insurance program for the poor is "misguided, and ultimately doomed." He argued only three in 10 Texas physicians accept new Medicaid patients, which he fears would shrink if more newly eligible Medicaid patients flooded the market. Medicaid currently accounts for 25 percent of the state budget, he added.
HHS Issues Final Rule on Medicaid Expansion Funding
Details Released on Medicaid Expansion Funding
An expansion of the program would add more than 1 million Texans to Medicaid by 2017, with the federal government funding 100 percent of the additional cost for three years and not less than 90 percent after that. Texas currently has the highest uninsured population in the United States.
Gov. Perry said in his prepared remarks the health law's provision to expand the government health insurance program for the poor is "misguided, and ultimately doomed." He argued only three in 10 Texas physicians accept new Medicaid patients, which he fears would shrink if more newly eligible Medicaid patients flooded the market. Medicaid currently accounts for 25 percent of the state budget, he added.
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Details Released on Medicaid Expansion Funding