Texas House Votes on Medicaid Expansion

During a marathon debate on the state budget last week, something important and overdue happened on the floor of the Texas House: State Representatives stood up and made the case for accepting Medicaid expansion funding from the federal government.

Representative Chris Turner, the author of the amendment, as well as Reps. Tomas Uresti, Donna Howard, and Gina Hinojosa, called for bringing our tax dollars back to Texas to help uninsured workers get health coverage, keep our hospitals going strong, and take pressure off of our local tax dollars and insurance premiums. No one argued against them. You can watch the discussion in this 11-minute video.

The amendment failed on a near party-line vote. All Democrats who were present, plus Rep. J.M. Lozano (a former Democrat from outside of Corpus Christi), voted for the amendment. All other Republicans who were present voted against the amendment. You can see how each Representative voted here. (Note that a "Yes" vote was to "table" or block the amendment and a "No" vote was a vote FOR the amendment.)

We encourage health care supporters to contact their Representatives to either thank them for voting to accept Medicaid expansion funding or express disappointment that they voted against it. You can look up your State Representative and his or her phone number here.