Texas’ already-strained health care system is bracing for deeper challenges when federal Affordable Care Act and Medicaid cuts go into effect as soon as next year, bringing fears of hospital closures, longer wait times and negative health outcomes.
But in the short-term, Texas hospital advocates and CEOs say they averted disaster by keeping the most damaging Medicaid-related provisions out of Republicans’ mega-bill.
Over 4 million Texans are enrolled in the narrowly structured Medicaid program, where eligibility is limited to children, pregnant women, seniors, disabled people and parents with a monthly income of under $300, for a family of four. At various points during negotiations, Republicans had discussed decreasing the federal match rate for Medicaid spending and eliminating provider taxes, a key source of revenue that jurisdictions in the state use to tax private hospitals to fund the state’s portion of Medicaid.