Texas Gov. supports Medicaid withdrawal campaign

In its health reforms, the federal government wants to expand Medicaid to include more families from the low-income bracket but the Texas government seems to have other plans. Republican lawmaker Warren Chisum, backed by Gov. Rick Perry, is proposing the state drop out of the Medicaid program and to avoid upcoming mandates to expand state Medicaid programs under the healthcare reform law.

Encouraged by the Heritage Foundation report that estimates Texas could save $60 billion from 2013-2019 by dropping acute-care coverage for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Chisum said, “With Obamacare mandates coming down, we have a situation where we cannot reduce benefits or change eligibility. We need to get out of it. And with the budget shortfall we’re anticipating, we may have to act this year.” '

The Republican is campaigning to be the Speaker of the Texas house.

The HHS has however not yet ruled in favor of a Medicaid waiver yet that Gov. Perry had proposed several years ago. Reacting to that on CNN he said, “I haven't gotten an answer yet. Let the states be the laboratories of innovation and the good ideas will come out of that." The state HHS will release its own study before January on the effect of opting out of the government sponsored medical plans.