- State keeps pressing for waiver to change Medicaid, but success is unlikely, By Emily Ramshawand Marilyn Werber Serafini, February 17, 2011, New York Times: “Just a few months ago, Gov. Rick Perry led a group of Texas lawmakers who were threatening to drop out of Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. A state analysis showing that Texas would lose billions of dollars in financing put an end to talk of opting out. Now, the debate has shifted, as Texas and other struggling states ask Washington for permission to operate the program as they see fit. Their approach – finding savings by curbing mandatory benefits or limiting eligibility among Medicaid populations – is unlikely to be approved by the Obama administration, which is intent on expanding Medicaid, not shrinking it. And while pressing for a waiver is a far cry from threatening to drop out, it may have the same result: fueling the fire behind Texas’ anti-Washington, state-sovereignty rhetoric…”
- Cutting Medicaid harder than issuing soundbites, senators learn, By Robert T. Garrett, February 14, 2011, Dallas Morning News: “Texas budget writers are finding that cutting Medicaid is harder than it sounds. Reducing services that states don’t have to provide for poor adults is already a part of both chambers’ initial budgets. But Senate health budget writers were warned Monday to tread carefully for fear of costing the state more in the long run…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty