September 21, 2017      6:03 PM
Texas could pick up more than $30 billion in new money under Graham-Cassidy
But that doesn’t necessarily translate to improved access: “If Texas chooses to use some of the block grant from Graham-Cassidy on coverage, it would have to set up a coverage program from scratch by 2020 and there is no federal fallback…”
Texas
would see a $34 billion bump in additional federal funds for Medicaid
under the so-called Graham-Cassidy replacement for the Affordable Care Act,
according to new numbers out today from Kaiser Family Foundation.
That’s
just what Texas Republican lawmakers would like to hear.
Most,
including Gov. Greg Abbott, have expressed
support for the concept of block grant funding. Under the Kaiser
numbers, 35 states plus the District of Columbia would face losing funds.
Texas, on the other hand, would see 75 percent more funds. The only state
seeing a greater percentage increase would be Mississippi. New York, California and Pennsylvania
would lose tens of billions in funding due to the choice to expand Medicaid.
By Kimberly Reeves
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