Texas CHIP Program Faces Budget Uncertainties While Arizona Governor Restores ... Kaiser Health News
Dallas Morning News : "Seven years ago, state leaders working to close a $9.9 billion budget gap took a hatchet to government health insurance for children of the working poor. Thousands of children paid the price when officials tightened eligibility rules and whacked dental, vision and mental health benefits. Gradually, benefits were restored to the Children's Health Insurance Program and, this month, enrollment reached roughly the same level as in 2003. But CHIP proponents fear the program could be on the block again as lawmakers face an even bigger shortfall – maybe $15 billion – as they write the next two-year budget in their upcoming session. The new federal health care law has limited the state's ability to cut too deeply into CHIP. If state leaders again tightened eligibility rules, they would put at risk the entire $14 billion to $15 billion a year of federal Medicaid and CHIP funds that Texas receives, said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a strong supporter of the program" (Garrett, 5/7). KENS 5 TV / Texas Tribune : "Dr. William Jones spent years losing money on Medicaid and Medicare patients — until he stopped seeing them. … Jones is still the exception, not the rule. But his decision is becoming increasingly common. The proportion of Texas doctors accepting all new Medicaid patients has tumbled in the last decade — falling from 67 percent to 42 percent, according to a Texas Medical Association survey. Medicare acceptance took a similar spill in that study, dropping from 78 percent to 64 percent. ... With health care reform expected to place up to 1 million more Texans on state rolls in the next several years, experts predict an almost certain surge in low-income Texans seeking long-overdue doctors appointments." Because reimbursements for these programs are "well below private-payer rates," experts worry more physicians to opt out (Ramshaw, 5/6).
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