Every day, there seems to be a new political issue that some people will praise and others will have problems with. No matter who is in charge, in the end, there will always be something to complain about. Most recently, the spotlight has been turned to the newly proposed and passed two-year budget in Texas. This budget was passed on March 22 and has since made quite the splash in critical opinions.
Who Makes the Budget?
Before getting into the reasons why people are worried over this new budget, it’s important to take a look at the budget as a whole and dissect it. First, let’s look at the people who control the budget: the Budget and Policy Division.
The Budget and Policy Division works beside the Governor to create state policies in collaboration with the Legislature, state agencies, and different constituents and stakeholders. The budget office is in charge of providing fiscal reports for the Chief Budget Officer (a.k.a. the Governor). They prepare the budget and send it out to the Legislature, among various other tasks such as approving agency contract requests, coordinating the strategic planning process, distributing budget instructions and holding hearings for budget requests.
What is the Budget?
The budget consists of over $210 billion spread out rather unevenly among the varied articles of the state government. The new budget increases funds in areas such as Child Protective Services and foster care yet cuts them in education and health care. While it reduces spending general-purpose revenue by one half percent (which is actually $500 million in the grand scheme of things), it actually increases overall spending by 1.9% ($4.1 billion).
The chamber’s GOP presiding officer states that this will not increase taxes and does not use the rainy day fund. He also promises that the new budget follows the inflation rate and population growth predicted for the next two years. The state government is extremely confident in their decisions, having unanimously passed the new budget.
Reactions to the Budget
There have been many mixed reactions to the new budget passed by Texas government. To be expected, the people who passed it are undoubtedly supportive, while the people it affects are questioning it’s worth. Reactions include complaining that the budget doesn’t support the growth of the state or that, in the long run, it actually decreases spending much more than reported.
Whereas, those in support of the budget argue that it make the most of a limited situation, utilizing the state’s resources to their fullest. They push the increase in funding to Child Protective Services and foster care while also praising the never before seen increase in funds for higher quality bulletproof vests for police.
One head of the Senate Finance panel that helped write the budget and argues its worth reports that state’s economy “isn’t bad”. She argues that the state simply hasn’t seen the same revenue that it has in past years due to declining gas prices and “other factors”. These “other factors” could be identified as issues presented by the last budget – a.k.a. the cuts related to various tax areas covering almost $10 billion.
The budget has also been said by head representatives to indicate and represent the wants and needs of all Texans. With that said, it seems that many Texans are actually very unhappy with health care cuts, deeming the statement made by representatives untrue.
So How Does This Affect Medicaid?
As stated previously, the budget has introduced cuts to both education and health care, which obviously covers Medicaid in the list. The largest Medicaid cut in itself will reduce spending by almost $1 billion, a heavy chunk of resources for health care.
This leaves many aspects of Medicaid unfunded, obviously. For example, the cost growth of Medicaid per patient has been left out. The hole left by decreased funding is predicted to be around $2 billion, leaving people who need care unfunded and on their own.
It seems that the goal of decreasing health care funding has been a step toward eliminating Obamacare and lowering the health care costs of Texans, but even some senators have recognized that perhaps it hasn’t necessarily achieved the goal they were aiming for.
Prior to these Medicaid funding cuts, Texas also already had the most strict eligibility requirements necessary for a patient to qualify for Medicaid. At the moment, approximately 4.5 million people in Texas receive Medicaid and more than 3 million of those recipients are children. The majority of the remaining amount of recipients is covered by seniors and those citizens who are disabled. These are the people that the decreases in Medicaid funding will affect.
Over the next several years under Trump’s presidency, the budget cuts planned to affect Medicaid will reduce funding by over $1 trillion. The conservatives who support these cuts say that they are a necessary pain that will help the country’s extreme debt (approximately $20 trillion) in the long run. They also say that these cuts don’t actually affect Medicaid spending and aren’t that big of a deal as they only affect future Medicaid spending.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that the amount of future Medicaid recipients will decrease by approximately 14 million people. The amount of current recipients that will be affected by the cuts is unclear at the time. Under the new cuts, Texas is laid out to see the most Medicaid funding cuts in the country, losing more than $5 billion over the next six years.
It is possible that Texas can pursue other options that the cuts in Medicaid funding won’t affect. With a Medicaid 1115 waiver, the state could remove itself from federal regulations and use funding from a fixed-sum block grant. The state was granted a waiver in 2011 that is apparently under negotiation. With that said, it is very likely that this is not the last we will hear about Medicaid funding, regardless of the form.