AUSTIN — The White House’s signature health care law is loathed by Texas’ political leadership, and the idea of expanding Medicaid likely remains a non-starter when the Legislature reconvenes this month.
But Gov.-elect Greg Abbott and many top conservatives support working with Washington to devise a federal block grant that would allow the state to remake Medicaid, a joint state-federal program that provides health care for the poor and disabled. Such an agreement could also earn Texas much of the up to $10 billion in annual subsidies that would have otherwise come via Medicaid expansion.
That idea may shape Texas’ renegotiations with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over an existing five-year, nearly $30 billion Medicaid waiver mostly used to reimburse hospitals for uninsured care and set to expire in September 2016.
via Could Texas win block Medicaid grant from feds? | Dallas Morning News.