March 05, 2007
Jeanne Tripplehorn annoys me...
So there is a willingness in the Senate to increase the term of enrollment in CHIP from six months back to a year. Unfortunately, Lt. Governor Dudley Dewhearse and Senator Ogden (R - Recent convert to doing the right thing, occasionally) are not for doing any such thing because they believe it might work. And that it will be too expensive.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said they don't like the idea of lengthening the enrollment period for the Children's Health Insurance Program from six months to one year.The fate of the CHIP expansion also may be affected by an unrelated federal lawsuit over Medicaid that is expected to dump additional health care expenses on the state this spring.
The Medicaid suit could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars if, as expected, U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice forces Texas to finally comply with an 11-year-old agreement to expand health care to thousands of other low-income children.
"I'm told a decision will be coming out in April, and I'm trying to ascertain what the effect of this type of decision will be fiscally on the state of Texas," Dewhurst said.
Of course it will be expensive. However, that money is going to be spent along with much more if we don't extend the coverage. Why? Because people who are uninsured usually receive the most expensive health care available, emergency care. As Dig Deeper Texas astutely points out, it's really more a case of saving a dollar by spending $4 in other areas.
Remember, cutbacks of services don't always make the service go away. Usually, it just devolves the level at which the service is paid and increases the cost to you and me. Thanks, Dewhearse for being such a profligate spender of my money. You can do better and if you can't then we'll find someone to replace you.
In case you were wondering... this has NOTHING to do with Jeanne Tripplehorn as it turns out. I kind of knew that all along. What, you didn't see that coming?
Posted by mcblogger at March 5, 2007 03:00 PM
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