Texas 2017 - 85th Regular

Texas Senate Bill SCR24 Compare Versions

Version 1 (Old)

Version 2 (New)

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1	1	By: Perry S.C.R. No. 24
2	2	(Klick)
3	3
4	4
5	5	SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
6	6	WHEREAS, Millions of medically vulnerable Texans need health
7	7	care but have neither insurance nor personal funds to cover the
8	8	cost; and
9	9	WHEREAS, Texas Medicaid was created to help the medically
10	10	vulnerable, but the huge cost of the federal health care
11	11	bureaucracy reduces the ability of the program to provide in a
12	12	timely manner the services and goods mandated by the federal
13	13	government; and
14	14	WHEREAS, Funding deficiencies also cause Texas Medicaid to
15	15	fail the provider community, including individuals and
16	16	institutions, by offering less than adequate recompense for the
17	17	services and goods they supply; Medicaid reimbursement rates are
18	18	below the cost of doing business for most providers, and as a
19	19	result, more than 30 percent of Texas physicians cannot afford to
20	20	take care of Medicaid enrollees; and
21	21	WHEREAS, In recent years, the federally mandated expansion of
22	22	Medicaid benefits has caused reimbursement rates to plummet
23	23	further, even as the number of Medicaid-covered patients has risen;
24	24	consequently, wait times for appointments have lengthened
25	25	dramatically; a study conducted by Illinois Medicaid found that
26	26	delays in care for Medicaid patients had resulted in unnecessary
27	27	deaths; and
28	28	WHEREAS, Medicaid is the largest single-cost item in the
29	29	Texas state budget, accounting for 30 percent of all spending; it
30	30	consumes financial resources that are sorely needed to support
31	31	other programs, including foster care, education, job training,
32	32	border security, and infrastructure; and
33	33	WHEREAS, The original Medicaid legislation of 1965 clearly
34	34	specified that Medicaid programs would be jointly funded by state
35	35	and federal governments and administered by the states; this
36	36	framework is in keeping with the intent of the founding fathers in
37	37	that it allows states to use their superior knowledge of the needs
38	38	of their residents and how best to expend the resources necessary to
39	39	regulate, administer, and control their own programs; states are
40	40	better positioned than the federal government to innovate and
41	41	compete, and they can take advantage of the laboratory of ideas to
42	42	provide superior alternatives to existing delivery systems;
43	43	nevertheless, today, Washington, D.C., bureaucrats at the Centers
44	44	for Medicare and Medicaid Services have decision-making power over
45	45	factors that drive costs in Texas, among them eligibility
46	46	standards, verification processes, compliance oversight, and
47	47	benefit packages; although Texas has received federal approval of a
48	48	Medicaid 1115 Waiver, which grants some additional flexibility,
49	49	this does not address the root cause of problems created by the lack
50	50	of state control; and
51	51	WHEREAS, When it expanded Medicaid eligibility, the federal
52	52	government promised greater access to health care, but medically
53	53	vulnerable residents of Texas have experienced cruel
54	54	disillusionment; without real control over the administration of
55	55	its own Medicaid program, Texas cannot address the problems that
56	56	arise in the delivery of required services with limited funds, and
57	57	the state cannot properly balance its priorities and discharge its
58	58	responsibilities to its citizens; now, therefore, be it
59	59	RESOLVED, That the 85th Legislature of the State of Texas
60	60	hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to uphold the
61	61	original intent of the 1965 Medicaid law to maintain a jointly
62	62	funded, state-administered program by continuing joint funding of
63	63	Texas Medicaid under the current Federal Medical Assistance
64	64	Percentages program while transferring the administration,
65	65	control, and compliance oversight of all aspects and components of
66	66	the Texas Medicaid program from the Centers for Medicare and
67	67	Medicaid Services in Washington to the State of Texas; and, be it
68	68	further
69	69	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
70	70	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
71	71	the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
72	72	Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
73	73	members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
74	74	this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
75	75	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.