Cornyn Repeats Misleading Medicaid Numbers

In his no-vote statement, Texas’ junior Senator continues to use a discredited projection of future new state spending under the Senate Finance health reform bill.  Most importantly, he neglects to say that the HHSC numbers shows a NET gain to Texas of $124 billion in federal Medicaid funds over the same 10 year period.  CPPP’s analysis explains how the HHSC estimate Cornyn cites is inflated by adding costs of covering already-eligible but unenrolled and uninsured children excluded today by Texas’ troubled enrollment system, and assumes a shift of county governments spending to the state that may not occur at all and in any case would not result from health reform.  We also explain that the estimate cannot be compared to other national estimates because it covers four more years than the official CBO estimates.  We conclude that the agency estimate is unrealistically high, but that by any measure, including the estimate itself, the economic benefit to Texas dramatically outweighs the cost to the state budget.

There are so many questionable statements in the Senator’s statement.  Anyone else care to comment on this one:  “The bill will make Medicaid the only health care option for 14 million Americans, which might provide coverage but it doesn’t provide access.   In Harris County, only 42 percent of physicians are taking new Medicaid patients.” Who is responsible for the inadequacy of Medicaid payment rates for Texas doctors?