By Joan Gralla
NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Texas may have to spend an extra $60 billion over 10 years and double the number of residents insured by Medicaid under health reform bills in Congress, Republican Governor Rick Perry said on Wednesday.
Perry, one of a few Republican governors who opposed the extra unemployment benefits Congress included in its economic stimulus plan, said the federal health reform bills will hit some business with a new tax and amount to a 'federal takeover of some current state insurance functions.'
For his $60 billion estimate, the governor, who is seeking a third term, cited an analysis by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the commission, said the $60 billion estimate was based on earlier healthcare bills. The commission slashed its forecast to $20 billion after analyzing the latest proposal from U.S. Democratic Senator Max Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.
A spokeswoman for Perry said the $60 billion estimate was still current because it did not refer specifically to the Baucus plan.
'Those proposals have not gone away; they're still being considered,' she said.
Goodman said the Texas commission's latest 10-year estimate was mainly based on the Baucus plan's expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal-state health plan for the elderly, poor and disabled.
'There are really two primary cost drivers,' she said.
Texas helps pay for Medicaid for about 2.8 million residents but their ranks would double because the state would have to cover low-income, able-bodied adults who are currently excluded.
Another half a million children would be covered because the U.S. census suggests they would qualify.
U.S. states should be allowed to craft their own healthcare solutions, Perry wrote the Senate Finance Committee and the Texas congressional delegation.
'I urge you to support our right, as a state, to further explore these approaches, rather than forcing us to implement federal mandates that promise financial hardships for the states,' he said.
In Washington, Republicans demanded more data about how much health care reform would cost and the Senate Finance Committee was expected to begin voting on amendments. For more details, please click on:.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and the governors of California, Indiana, Nevada and Utah, all Republicans, on Tuesday wrote Baucus, criticizing a proposed $40 billion tax on the makers of medical devices, from wheel chairs to diagnostic imaging equipment.
'The medical device industry employs approximately 360,000 people in the United States, with 60,000 of those jobs in Minnesota at companies including Medtronic, Boston Scientific, 3M, and St. Jude,' Pawlenty said.
For more details, please click on:.
(Additional reporting by Susan Kelly and Karen Pierog in Chicago; Susan Heavey in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Kenneth Barry) Keywords: TEXAS HEALTH/ (joan.gralla@thomsonreuters.com; Tel: +1-646-223-6345) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Texas may have to spend an extra $60 billion over 10 years and double the number of residents insured by Medicaid under health reform bills in Congress, Republican Governor Rick Perry said on Wednesday.
Perry, one of a few Republican governors who opposed the extra unemployment benefits Congress included in its economic stimulus plan, said the federal health reform bills will hit some business with a new tax and amount to a 'federal takeover of some current state insurance functions.'
For his $60 billion estimate, the governor, who is seeking a third term, cited an analysis by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the commission, said the $60 billion estimate was based on earlier healthcare bills. The commission slashed its forecast to $20 billion after analyzing the latest proposal from U.S. Democratic Senator Max Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.
A spokeswoman for Perry said the $60 billion estimate was still current because it did not refer specifically to the Baucus plan.
'Those proposals have not gone away; they're still being considered,' she said.
Goodman said the Texas commission's latest 10-year estimate was mainly based on the Baucus plan's expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal-state health plan for the elderly, poor and disabled.
'There are really two primary cost drivers,' she said.
Texas helps pay for Medicaid for about 2.8 million residents but their ranks would double because the state would have to cover low-income, able-bodied adults who are currently excluded.
Another half a million children would be covered because the U.S. census suggests they would qualify.
U.S. states should be allowed to craft their own healthcare solutions, Perry wrote the Senate Finance Committee and the Texas congressional delegation.
'I urge you to support our right, as a state, to further explore these approaches, rather than forcing us to implement federal mandates that promise financial hardships for the states,' he said.
In Washington, Republicans demanded more data about how much health care reform would cost and the Senate Finance Committee was expected to begin voting on amendments. For more details, please click on:.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and the governors of California, Indiana, Nevada and Utah, all Republicans, on Tuesday wrote Baucus, criticizing a proposed $40 billion tax on the makers of medical devices, from wheel chairs to diagnostic imaging equipment.
'The medical device industry employs approximately 360,000 people in the United States, with 60,000 of those jobs in Minnesota at companies including Medtronic, Boston Scientific, 3M, and St. Jude,' Pawlenty said.
For more details, please click on:.
(Additional reporting by Susan Kelly and Karen Pierog in Chicago; Susan Heavey in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Kenneth Barry) Keywords: TEXAS HEALTH/ (joan.gralla@thomsonreuters.com; Tel: +1-646-223-6345) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
© 2009 AFX News
