401kRollover Blog

In the latest Medicaid debacle, planned Texas cuts are on hold after the HHSC was forced to “start over”, as a proposal to cut therapy services for special needs children met with massive opposition. On the eve of a legal decision which may have seen the commission subject to a temporary restraining order to prevent it imposing the cuts, the HHSC said it would re-examine the proposal. The commission later said in a statement released to Houston Press that it “plans to move forward with implementing the full Medicaid therapy rate reductions” and added that it is set to “re-start the process to set reimbursement rates to achieve the full savings as mandated by the legislature.” The legislature, controlled by Republicans, has called for rate reductions due to concerns about excess spending.

Opponents to the cuts, which would have saved $150 million, said they would have reduced access to speech, physical and occupational therapists for more than 240,000 disadvantaged Texans.The decision to stall the cuts is a victory for those people, but once again raises yet more questions on just how exactly to fund a ballooning Medicare service, as well as showing the gaping deficiencies in the system.

According to an article in The New York Post on July 29, the Medicare “poverty trap” is getting worse. The system has expanded massively since the introduction of Obamacare, with more than one in five Americans now enrolled. That jump in enrollment has come along with an equally large jump in costs — the program now costs $500 billion a year, up from just $1 billion when it began in 1965. The program will only get more expensive, as costs are set to increase 7 percent a year for the next eight years. That means that if nothing is done to change the system, by 2023 it will be costing Americans a whopping $780 billion a year.

Like or Share if you think the Texas debacle shows that Medicaid needs a complete overhaul.