Texas GOP Doesn't Care About The Poor

Texas already has one of the most restrictive Medicaid systems in the country. To qualify for it, a person must have a child and make far less than the defined poverty level. This has caused several million people to be without any kind of health insurance -- and because Governor Perry (and the GOP- controlled legislature) are refusing to expand Medicaid as called for under Obamacare), there is little to no chance those millions will have any insurance even after Obamacare is fully implemented.

It's not that Texas couldn't afford to expand Medicaid. The federal government would foot the bill for ten years (and actually give the state more money than would be required). And after the ten years, the federal government would still pay 90% of the required expenditure.

And it's not that Texas wouldn't like to have that federal money. Both Perry and the legislature have said they would like to have the money. They just don't want to follow the federal guidelines in spending the money. They want to design their own program. You can bet that a Texas Republican-designed program would not cover all of the poor -- and probably, like the current program, cover very few of them. They would just like the money so they can design more giveaways to the rich in the state.

It would be a serious mistake to give Texas even a penny of the money for an expanded Medicaid program, until they agree to follow the federal guidelines to the letter. That money must be used to provide health insurance, adequate and decent health insurance, for the poor -- and not given to the Republicans to waste on other ventures (to make the rich even richer).

The truth is that Perry (and his GOP cronies) just do not care about the poor. They don't believe the poor should have a right to decent healthcare (or any healthcare at all, since they can't pay for it). The fact that thousands die from lack of healthcare in Texas each year doesn't bother them at all. For them, a person is not really human unless they have money. That may sound harsh, but it is the truth. If it wasn't, they would expand Medicaid.