Texas lawmakers fast-track property tax cut proposal weatherforddemocrat.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from weatherforddemocrat.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Time to get real about tackling Texas’ uninsured rate By Erica Grieder
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Texas’ Republican leaders were abruptly reminded of that Friday, when the Biden administration announced it was rescinding an 11th-hour waiver extension issued by the Trump administration relating to the Medicaid program. The waiver has continued the flow of federal dollars to Texas to prop up hospitals that treat low-income, uninsured residents even as the GOP-led state has refused to expand Medicaid through Obamacare.
To hear Republicans such as Gov. Greg Abbott tell it, the president cruelly yanked the rug out from under some of the state’s most vulnerable Texans while we’re still in a pandemic, no less. Biden is “deliberately betraying Texans who depend on the resources made possible through this waiver,” the governor said in a statement.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last week its decision to rescind Texas’s Medicaid 1115 waiver, citing insufficient reasoning for exempting the state from the waiver’s required public comment period.
In explaining its decision, CMS cited a letter it received late last year from three stakeholder organizations urging the department to reconsider exempting Texas from the public comment period.
The three organizations are the Children’s Defense Fund, Every Texan (formerly the Center for Public Policy Priorities) and Texans Care for Children.
State of Reform obtained the original letter protesting the decision, sent to CMS on Dec. 28, 2021. The three organizations voiced their “serious concern” about the exemption’s impact on Texans and urged the department to reconsider. This letter was sent after CMS accepted Texas’s request to be exempt from public comment, but before the department actually renewed the waiver.
Abbott blasts Biden administration decision to block health care safety net for uninsured Texans insurancenewsnet.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from insurancenewsnet.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday said the Biden administration is “obstructing healthcare access for vulnerable Texans” after officials rescinded approval for a waiver that delivers billions in federal dollars to hospitals in Texas.
In a letter to the state, federal Medicaid officials said the Trump administration’s decision to fast-track approval of the $100 billion waiver in January was made in error, without enough time for public comment.
The 1115 Medicaid waiver serves as a federal funding agreement that reimburses hospitals in Texas for expenses they incur when treating patients without health insurance. It also funds innovative health care initiatives geared towards low-income patients who may not have insurance.