TX Speaker Prioritizes Health Care Bills — Minus Medicaid Expansion
On Tuesday, House Speaker Dade Phelan and other House members announced a Texas House Plan on Healthcare, officially making this legislative session a health care session.
We’re deeply disappointed to see the plan excludes Medicaid expansion and the Live Well Texas proposal, although the Speaker said he does expect that Medicaid expansion will be “addressed” this session in the House, potentially through a debate on a budget amendment. Drawing down these federal Medicaid funds to provide a health insurance option to 1.4 million adults with low incomes is by far the single most significant health care step that the Legislature could take this session.
Nonetheless, we’re very excited to see that the plan includes some of our priorities, including legislation to stop kicking eligible kids off Medicaid insurance (HB 290) and legislation to extend moms’ insurance to cover a full year after pregnancy (HB 133). Both of those bills passed the House Human Services Committee on Tuesday. The plan also includes other important bills, such as legislation to re-establish a state office dedicated to addressing health disparities (HB 4139) and legislation to expand telehealth (HB 4), among others.
And we’re concerned that the plan includes a few problematic bills, including legislation to reopen the door to discrimination against people with preexisting conditions (HB 3923, HB 3924, and HB 3752).
If the House, Senate, and Governor pass all the good bills in the plan, it will be a meaningful — though very incomplete — step forward for health care for Texans.
But if they fall short of passing even this incomplete health care agenda — now that Texans expect some real results on health care this session — state leaders are likely to face significant blowback from across the state.
The first measure of their commitment to this health care agenda is whether the House schedules votes soon on HB 290 and HB 133 or whether they wait until the clock is winding down later in the session. If the House passes the bills quickly, all eyes will be on the Senate, the Lt. Governor, and the Governor.
What can you do to help?
You can contact state leaders about supporting the Live Well Texas bills.
And you can contact state leaders about supporting the legislation the Speaker endorsed to stop kicking eligible kids off their insurance.
Thanks for raising your voice!