May 28, 2013 | State lawmakers in Texas have passed a bill that would deny over a million low-income residents Medicaid coverage they would have received as a result of President Obama’s healthcare plan.
The bill states that health officials can only provide medical assistance to those who would have been “otherwise eligible” under the criteria in effect December 31, 2013. The Affordable Care Act mandates that Medicaid be expanded starting in 2014. But the Supreme Court ruling on the act said that the federal government could not require states to expand the low-income health program.
Governor Rick Perry had stated his strident opposition to expanding Medicaid last summer.
Commentary by The Secular Jurist: Since Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured people, and that “the federal government fully funds Medicaid expansion until 2016 and gradually reduces its contribution to 90 percent in 2020 and subsequent years” as noted by Think Progress’ Igor Volsky, the moral character of this bill’s supporters must be called into question. From our perspective, that character is open to severe condemnation.
The Secular Jurist 