AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The debate in Texas over whether to fully implement the new federal health care law has little to do with health care, and a lot to do with ideology and politics.
Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs summed it up best last week when he said the question is not whether to pay for poor people's health care, but who will pay.
Suehs released new calculations on Thursday that showed fully implementing the law and insuring more than 2 million additional people under Medicaid would cost about $16 billion over 10 years, an increase of less than 2 percent in state spending over current levels. The Affordable Care Act would make the state and federal government responsible for paying the health care costs of the indigent, an expense currently paid with county property taxes.
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