Medicaid Selected Article II Analysis
Author:
Anne Dunkelberg /(512) 320-0222 x 102
May 3, 2011
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The House’s adopted budget and the Senate Finance Committee’s approved budget (the full Senate has not yet voted on this bill) take significantly different approaches to allocating and cutting funding for Texas Medicaid and CHIP. Still, one important approach used by both chambers is a substantial under-funding of the program overall that is not associated with particular policy changes or program cuts. Since Medicaid is an entitlement, an underlying assumption is that the state will keep paying Medicaid and CHIP health providers for services every month as long as there is money available, and can cover the “unassigned” budget cuts with a supplemental appropriations bill in the 2013 session as long as funds do not “run out” before January 2013.
This short Policy Page analysis compares some of the high-level differences between the chambers’ approaches, and addresses how the proposed state General Revenue (GR) cuts for 2012-2013 compare to the cuts adopted in 2003 for the 2004-2005 budget.