Proposed cuts to Medicaid in the Texas budget would harm children

Proposed cuts to Medicaid in the Texas budget would harm children

February 23, 2011 | Stephanie Bouchard, Associate Editor

AUSTIN, TX – As the legislature in Texas grapples with its budget, the Children’s Hospital Association of Texas (CHAT), which represents seven, nonprofit hospitals, is warning lawmakers that cuts to Medicaid could have disastrous consequences for the children of the state.

More than 2.4 million children in the state are enrolled in Medicaid and more than 500,000 are in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Texas lawmakers have proposed budget cuts that include a 10 percent reduction in payments to doctors and hospitals for treating children covered by Medicaid and CHIP.

Without the benefit of a federal stimulus fund, Medicaid is short $9.9 billion. The state budget being proposed now calls for cost savings initiatives, but, said Bryan Sperry, president of CHAT, those cost saving measures, if they work, only reduce the shortfall by $2.7 billion.

“Children’s hospitals are very dependent on Medicaid,” Sperry said, “because they care for low-income [patients]. Between 50 and 80 percent of inpatients to children’s hospitals are on Medicaid, so 10 percent can have a pretty major impact.”

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