At this critical time, how can Texas keep refusing Medicaid expansion?
Now, during the coronavirus pandemic, is a good time to remind you that Texas is one of 14 states saying no to billions in federal dollars because it won’t expand Medicaid coverage.
Now is also a good time to point out a few other things while this pandemic makes more and more Texans eligible for benefits if Medicaid were expanded:
Texas is the state with the largest uninsured population — about 5 million of our people. We’re the second-largest state, which begs the question why we have more uninsured than California, the largest. (Answer: We’re notoriously stingy with state funding for health care.)
More than 1.5 million Texans would become eligible if Texas were to expand Medicaid. That number may expand in a hurry with so many people out of work right now.
By 2024, we Texans will have paid $36.2 billion in federal taxes that will go to other states, assuming our elected officials continue to refuse Medicaid expansion. Ask yourself how you feel about supporting the health care expenses of Massachusetts but not Texas.
A study released last year by the University of Michigan estimated that 730 Texans die each year because Texas hasn’t expanded Medicaid.
It’s estimated that Texas is saying no to $100 billion — billion with a “b” — in a decade’s span.
HOW CAN WE CHANGE THIS?
Gov. Greg Abbott has the authority to do it unilaterally, as did his predecessor, Rick Perry. The expansion program started in 2014 and Abbott has been governor since 2015. It also could be done by the Legislature. Attempts thus far have failed.
WHY SAY NO TO BILLIONS?
Perry refused expanded Medicaid, saying the entire Medicaid program was unsustainable. You could say that about any number of government programs and services, including the defense budget. We could try doing without them and see how sustainable that turns out. Abbott said the federal government was being “coercive” trying to force Medicaid expansion upon Texas.
But if you want to know their real reason, look no further than whose plan it was — President Barack Obama’s. That name alone was enough for them to oppose it with every fiber of their beings, despite the guaranteed losses of life that these two pro-life politicians had to have seen coming.
CAN ABBOTT BE CONVINCED?
We are trying to be optimistic. It’s why we broached the subject in the first place — because we think coronavirus is the tipping point. We worry what it’ll do to the uninsured poor people who don’t qualify for Medicaid if Texas doesn’t take the expansion. They are at huge risk because they avoid doctor visits they can’t afford and because they’re willing to risk exposure to keep their low-paying jobs.
We’re also curious, and frightened, about how the University of Michigan would recalculate its 730-deaths estimate to account for coronavirus.
We’d like to think that Abbott would swallow his pride to save lives and that he’d act quickly, since coronavirus already is here killing Texans.
But that’s a lot of pride to swallow. When Abbott was attorney general, he took the lead in the lawsuit by Republican-led states against the federal government, winning states’ rights to refuse Medicaid expansion. It happened at the Supreme Court level in 2012 and could be considered Abbott’s crowning achievement as a lawyer.
So you can see how significant an about-face it would be for Abbott to accept Medicaid expansion. It would be up there with Jesse Helms’ reversal of his stance against funding programs to combat AIDS after Bono lobbied him. (Willie Nelson, are you listening?)
In other words, it’s unlikely but possible.
• El Paso Times editorial board, via The Associated Press