/
Sonia Wood, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner, treats a patient at Carousel Pediatrics in Austin. Three million children are currently on Medicaid, but most of their parents do not qualify.
Nothing is truly dead until the session ends. But committee chairs in both chambers have blocked bills from getting hearings, and supporters have dim hopes that Republican leaders will revive it in time.
An effort to expand government health care for working poor Texans is likely dead for this legislative session, supporters say — mired in conservative opposition and faced with a fast-approaching deadline in the Republican-led Texas Legislature.
Medicaid expansion “appears extremely unlikely to move this session,” said state Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, author of Senate Bill 117, a plan that had bipartisan support among House members but not in his own chamber. “It appears that for purposes of this session, lingering misinformation and political intransigence are still too large to overcome.”