More Texas Doctors Threaten To Drop Medicaid

The state of Texas has about 48,700 practicing physicians, but less than a third of them accept Medicaid patients. With about 3.3 million Medicaid patients in the state which means that the doctors that still accept Medicaid must take on at least 68 or more Medicaid patients.

That may not sound like a lot, but it must be taken into consideration that the doctors don't make any money on Medicaid patients -- they lose money on them. So the greater part of a doctor's practice must be made up of people who are not on Medicaid. This is because the Republican governor and legislature in Texas have cut Medicaid payments so much that it is just not profitable for a doctor to treat these patients.

Now the doctors that still treat Medicaid patients are threatening to drop these patients. Why? Because the Republican state leadership is asking the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to make even further cuts to Medicaid payments to doctors.

Texas is facing a $15 to $18 billion deficit in the next biennium and they are asking state agencies to all cut their budgets by another 10% (this after already cutting those budgets more than once). Since Texas Republicans absolutely refuse to raise taxes, especially on the rich, they are left with only one option -- cutting budgets, and they want to do it across the board.

This doesn't make a lot of sense because of two reasons. First, there is a limit to the amount that can be cut from an agency's budget before it starts to hurt the services that agency can deliver to the citizens. Second, some agencies deliver more critical services than others and therefore should not be cut as much (if at all).

Medicaid (and other health services) are one of those critical agencies that should not be cut. Poor and working class families cannot stop getting sick just because the state is running a deficit -- even if Republicans think they should. But the Republicans don't seem to care about these people as long as they can protect the rich from paying taxes.

In fact, I believe the Republicans are intentionally trying to drive doctors out of the Medicaid program. They have never liked the program and if they can cut the fees enough and drive nearly all doctors out of the program, then they can crow about how they knew the program wouldn't work and try to eliminate it altogether. They completely overlook the fact that the program is only in trouble because of the draconian cuts they have imposed.

And don't think this is the only health program the Republicans would like to get rid of. They would also like to get rid of Medicare (although that is the national Republicans trying to destroy it). Enough cuts have been made to Medicare that many doctors across the nation now will not take on any new Medicare patients. This is a disaster in the making considering the aging of our population.

I agree that cuts must be made in some areas to help cover the deficit, but we must be careful where those cuts are made. They should not be made in areas that would jeopardize the health of innocent people. If taxes must be raised to maintain at least the current level of health care and eliminate the deficit, then it should be done. Taking taxes off the table before the legislature even meets (which it will do in early 2011) is short-sighted and across-the-board cuts without considering how ordinary Texans will be hurt is downright mean-spirited.

I am left with only one question. Why do Republicans hate the poor and the elderly?