Opinion: Expanding Medicaid would transform Texans’ lives

Right now, more than 5 million Texans do not have health insurance. Our uninsured rate contributes to higher maternal and infant mortality rates while exacerbating the opioid epidemic and lack of mental health care. It also undermines the financial security of families and harms rural communities already suffering due to widespread hospital closures.

We know that Medicaid expansion is not the solution to all of Texas’ healthcare woes. But cutting the number of uninsured people by 25 percent is the biggest tool we have to begin tackling the problem immediately. Medicaid expansion would provide 1.4 million Texans with access to care, bring billions of dollars into our economy, lower all of our health insurance premiums, and save neighbors’ lives.

While the Legislature has failed to act, recent headlines have spelled out how dire the problem is, and it is getting worse. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas, for the first time since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, had an increase in the rate of uninsured people, from 17.3 percent to 17.7 percent. Texas is the only state with a double-digit rate of uninsured children. And one in four Texas women of reproductive age is uninsured.

New federal estimates suggest 80 percent of rural America is medically underserved. With one in four counties having one or no doctor, half lacking medical specialists, and some 60 percent without general surgeons, nowhere is the problem plainer than Texas.

The next session must prioritize Medicaid expansion and access to health care. I filed legislation that would have expanded Medicaid and allowed Texans to vote, and many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle filed legislation to address maternal mortality, mental health care and rural hospital closures. But whether these bills did not get a hearing or died in the process, the outcome is the same: Texans will suffer, and some will die.

By failing to expand Medicaid, by failing to pass bills like HB 744 by Rep. Toni Rose, which would have extended Medicaid eligibility for mothers to 12 months, or like HB 342 by Rep. Philip Cortez, which would have reduced red tape that unnecessarily removed Texas children from Medicaid, the Legislature has failed its constituents. We have punted the problem down the road.

Failing to pass expansion also has a large economic impact. Texas taxpayers would save $4.3 billion on uncompensated care, some 303,000 jobs would be created annually, and $525 million in new tax revenue would be generated with an expansion. Expansion states have seen hundreds of millions of dollars in budget savings. Arkansas will save $444 million from 2018 to 2021, and Michigan will save $1 billion in that same period.

Medicaid expansion is something we can do right now to transform the lives of fellow Texans and their families. What's more, nearly two-thirds of Texas voters agree. It’s time to bring tax dollars back to Texas and help every Texan get care they need.

Bucy represents Texas House District 136, which includes western Williamson County.