Following remarks regarding Medicaid reform by the presumptive Speaker of the House Rep. Dade Phelan, the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Director of Right on Healthcare released the following statement:
“We applaud the presumptive speaker for his focus on improving Medicaid for eligible recipients, rather than making disastrous reforms to expand the broken program to able-bodied adults. There are nearly 600,000 Texans who are currently eligible but not enrolled. And we have over 167,000 medically dependent and disabled Texans who are waiting in line for services.
“Expansion to able-bodied adults would steer resources away from the truly needy, force cuts in other priorities like education and public safety, end private health insurance for nearly half a million Texans, and blow a massive hole in future state budgets. Focusing on fixing Medicaid by improving delivery and decreasing delays is the compassionate road forward for those whom the program was intended.”