AUSTIN – Today’s U.S. Senate committee approval of health-care reform legislation is a major step toward bankrupting states across the country, including Texas, according to health care expert and former state Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth.
“The congressional leadership is rushing this legislation through the process because they realize the details of their plan cannot withstand public scrutiny,” Wohlgemuth said. “Every one of their proposals has been tried before, and the results have always been health care that is lower quality, harder to get, and still costs more. Texans deserve health care reforms that are patient-centered and have been proven to work.”
Wohlgemuth, a Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, noted that expanding Medicaid eligibility to families making up to $33,000 a year would cost the state of Texas $4 billion per year in new state revenues, or roughly 10 percent of the state’s entire general revenue budget.
“Instead of Texans being able to fund schools, roads, or other state functions, Washington, D.C. would hijack Texas’ state budget as part of its government takeover of our health care system,” she said.
The legislation would ultimately push millions of Texans out of their current health insurance into a government-run health plan. Millions of Texans and tens of thousands of businesses who choose not to purchase insurance would face heavy government fines.
The Honorable Arlene Wohlgemuth is a Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin. She served 10 years in the Texas House of Representatives, specializing in health care issues.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan, free-market research institute based in Austin.
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