Most In Texas Medicaid Are Children Or Elderly

AUSTIN (AP) ? 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.

(? Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Source: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/02/16/most-in-texas-medicaid-are-children-or-elderly/

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