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Girl Power: Kamie Halfmann's Track Career is Off and Running 5/24/13
Most in Texas Medicaid Are Children or Elderly 2/17/13
Associated Press
February 17, 2013
AUSTIN - Every odd-numbered year, the Texas health and human
services commissioner appears before state lawmakers hungry to cut spending on
Medicaid.
And at every meeting he or she shows them a chart of whose health services
would suffer: impoverished children, senior citizens and the disabled.
That's the moment when even the most hard-hearted lawmaker realizes that
cutting the program, which accounts for a quarter of state spending, will be
tougher than they thought.
But the number of poor children and impoverished elderly continues to grow,
and federal law requires the state to provide a basic level of services.
Texas lawmakers have promised to maintain support for the poor, but Medicaid
has reached a quarter of state spending.
Republicans are looking for ways to reduce those costs without cutting
services.