As needy groups grow, state faces Medicaid funding crisis
AUSTIN — Every odd-numbered year, the Texas health and human services commissioner appears before state lawmakers hungry to cut spending on Medicaid, and at every meeting he or she shows them a chart of whose health services would suffer: impoverished children, senior citizens and the disabled.
That’s the moment when even the most hard-hearted lawmaker realizes that cutting the program, which accounts for a quarter of state spending, will be tougher than they thought. Texas already has one of the most restrictive Medicaid programs in the country.
But Texas faces a fundamental problem in that the number of poor children and impoverished elderly continues to grow, and federal law requires the state to provide a basic level of services to these people in return for matching funds that cover about 60 percent of the program’s cost.
This year, lawmakers will try to wring out every dime possible in efficiencies and fighting waste. Sen. Jane Nelson, chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee, has introduced bills to fight waste and fraud while rewarding great efficiency.
More at http://www.news-journal.com/news/state/as-needy-groups-grow-state-faces-medicaid-funding-crisis/article_bf20aa03-dd40-5449-ab03-ae31285e04ac.html .
