A report released today by the Texas Public Policy Foundation criticizes the state’s Medicaid program, calling its access to healthcare providers “inadequate” and its health outcomes “poor.”
Gov. Rick Perry has refused to accept federal money to expand access to Medicaid, citing much the same reasons.
Perry says he would prefer a “block grant” of the federal money, allowing Texas to decide how best to spend it.
Arlene Wohlgemuth at the TPPF, a conservative think tank in Austin, says that with fewer federal restrictions, Texans could use the money to choose their own health care coverage.
“The state would give most Medicaid eligibility groups a defined contributions of funds with which individual enrollees would purchase private health insurance which meets their needs,” Wohlgemuth said.
States have the option of accepting federal money under the Affordable Care Act to expand coverage of Medicaid to people earning up to 133 percent above the poverty level.
