Bill Text: TX SCR24 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Engrossed
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Urging the United States Congress to continue joint federal-state funding of Texas Medicaid while transferring administration of the program to the Texas Legislature.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-05-12 - Committee report sent to Calendars [SCR24 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-SCR24-Engrossed.html
Bill Title: Urging the United States Congress to continue joint federal-state funding of Texas Medicaid while transferring administration of the program to the Texas Legislature.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-05-12 - Committee report sent to Calendars [SCR24 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-SCR24-Engrossed.html
By: Perry | S.C.R. No. 24 |
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WHEREAS, Millions of medically vulnerable Texans need health | ||
care but have neither insurance nor personal funds to cover the | ||
cost; and | ||
WHEREAS, Texas Medicaid was created to help the medically | ||
vulnerable, but the huge cost of the federal health care | ||
bureaucracy reduces the ability of the program to provide in a | ||
timely manner the services and goods mandated by the federal | ||
government; and | ||
WHEREAS, Funding deficiencies also cause Texas Medicaid to | ||
fail the provider community, including individuals and | ||
institutions, by offering less than adequate recompense for the | ||
services and goods they supply; Medicaid reimbursement rates are | ||
below the cost of doing business for most providers, and as a | ||
result, more than 30 percent of Texas physicians cannot afford to | ||
take care of Medicaid enrollees; and | ||
WHEREAS, In recent years, the federally mandated expansion of | ||
Medicaid benefits has caused reimbursement rates to plummet | ||
further, even as the number of Medicaid-covered patients has risen; | ||
consequently, wait times for appointments have lengthened | ||
dramatically; a study conducted by Illinois Medicaid found that | ||
delays in care for Medicaid patients had resulted in unnecessary | ||
deaths; and | ||
WHEREAS, Medicaid is the largest single-cost item in the | ||
Texas state budget, accounting for 30 percent of all spending; it | ||
consumes financial resources that are sorely needed to support | ||
other programs, including foster care, education, job training, | ||
border security, and infrastructure; and | ||
WHEREAS, The original Medicaid legislation of 1965 clearly | ||
specified that Medicaid programs would be jointly funded by state | ||
and federal governments and administered by the states; this | ||
framework is in keeping with the intent of the founding fathers in | ||
that it allows states to use their superior knowledge of the needs | ||
of their residents and how best to expend the resources necessary to | ||
regulate, administer, and control their own programs; states are | ||
better positioned than the federal government to innovate and | ||
compete, and they can take advantage of the laboratory of ideas to | ||
provide superior alternatives to existing delivery systems; | ||
nevertheless, today, Washington, D.C., bureaucrats at the Centers | ||
for Medicare and Medicaid Services have decision-making power over | ||
factors that drive costs in Texas, among them eligibility | ||
standards, verification processes, compliance oversight, and | ||
benefit packages; although Texas has received federal approval of a | ||
Medicaid 1115 Waiver, which grants some additional flexibility, | ||
this does not address the root cause of problems created by the lack | ||
of state control; and | ||
WHEREAS, When it expanded Medicaid eligibility, the federal | ||
government promised greater access to health care, but medically | ||
vulnerable residents of Texas have experienced cruel | ||
disillusionment; without real control over the administration of | ||
its own Medicaid program, Texas cannot address the problems that | ||
arise in the delivery of required services with limited funds, and | ||
the state cannot properly balance its priorities and discharge its | ||
responsibilities to its citizens; now, therefore, be it | ||
RESOLVED, That the 85th Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to uphold the | ||
original intent of the 1965 Medicaid law to maintain a jointly | ||
funded, state-administered program by continuing joint funding of | ||
Texas Medicaid under the current Federal Medical Assistance | ||
Percentages program while transferring the administration, | ||
control, and compliance oversight of all aspects and components of | ||
the Texas Medicaid program from the Centers for Medicare and | ||
Medicaid Services in Washington to the State of Texas; and, be it | ||
further | ||
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the | ||
members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that | ||
this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |