What Does Medicaid Expansion Mean For Texas?

Texas' Medicaid program is one of the largest and costliest in the nation; and yet, if government-run health care legislation is passed by Congress, the Texas program and its costs could get even bigger, says the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Under Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' still-developing plan, the "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009," the Texas Health and Human Services Commission estimates that the program's costs will rise by more than $20 billion over the next decade, and the number of people enrolled in the program will grow by more than 2.5 million.

Dumping these state and federal resources into the Medicaid program is not the right answer. Already the system consumes an enormous amount of public resources. Adding to it would only worsen the burden on states, enlarge the pool of health care recipients dependent on government aid, and worsen a growing problem of fraud, says the Foundation.

Expanding the Medicaid programs of Texas or any other state is not the right way to achieve meaningful health care reform. Rather, improving the nation's ailing health care system requires a completely different approach -- one that focuses on the doctor-patient relationship and minimizes bureaucratic interference.

Source: Talmadge Heflin et al., "State Impact: Expanding Medicaid and What it Could Mean for Texas," Texas Public Policy Foundation, September 2009.

Americans for Prosperity has written a prescription for healthy reform.