Medicaid Talks, Tax Cut Challenges, and Looming Lawsuits

Last week started with a very difficult press conference for health advocates. On Monday, March 2, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Sen. Charles Schwertner brought together the GOP caucus in the Senate to declare necessary reforms to the existing Medicaid system that must happen before progress on Medicaid expansion could ever be considered. While this may have sounded positive, the stipulations they set out included several “poison pills” that they knew the federal government would not likely approve. The only positive thing that several of us in the health care advocacy community noticed is that neither the Governor nor the Speaker was in attendance. Sometimes we have to look for small victories.

Budget discussions progressed last week with no decisions being made, but the Senate held two days of hearings on several tax cut proposals. These hearings culminated with the Senate leadership laying out a suggestion that tax cuts and debt reduction should not count against the spending cap. The House leadership did not seem to agree with the Senate on this issue immediately either, but it did lay out an interesting opportunity for legislators to consider ways that they could meet several obligations at once with the extra revenue they have this year without having to vote to break the spending cap.

Finally, much attention was on the US Supreme Court which heard the beginning arguments of the King vs. Burwell case. In summary, this critically important case could either reaffirm or discontinue the health insurance subsidies that have helped over a million Texans purchase health insurance this year under the ACA. Most importantly, it shined a light on the opportunities the Texas Legislature has to control its own destiny or be at the mercy of the court. A special thank you to State Representative Chris Turner  who has developed HBs 817 and 818 which would facilitate a state-based exchange and thereby protect the coverage subsidies that so many Texans need to maintain their coverage. We are not optimistic that either of these bills will make it to the Governor’s desk for signature, but it is good to know that there are members of the Legislature that see the challenge and are responding to it.

Now that the introductory committee hearings have all been completed and they are all comfortably staffed and operational, we are expecting substantive bills and decisions to come into focus. Considering we are eight weeks into a twenty week session, things will start to happen quickly.