Medicaid Expansion in Texas

“MedicaidMousetrap” by Craig Estes in Empower Texans is an article against Medicaid expansion in Texas. Craig Estes is a Republican member of the Texas Senate. In his post Craig implies that Medicaid expansion is same as mousetrap with cheese through “Texas is being lured by free federal dollars into expanding Medicaid”. In his point, Medicaid expansion is a bad idea for Texas and it should be rejected.

The intended audience of his post is obviously conservatives or Republicans.

In his first point Craig says that “Texas can’t afford Medicaid expansion and if Medicaid growth is left unrestrained it will literally squeeze judges, police and professors out of the Texas budget”. I don’t agree with point, since federal government would pay 90 percent of the Medicaid expansion and state would pay only 10 percent, it’s not a big expense for the state. On the other hand, spending money through Medicaid is kind of an economic stimulus in which federal money flows directly into local economy supporting wages, employment, consumer spending, and state tax revenue. Therefore, saying no to Medicaid expansion means saying no to the economic growth of the state.

In his second point, Craig says that Federal governments’ funds for the Medicaid expansion is not free; it is basically coming from the taxpayers. So if it is coming from the taxpayers then why Texas is rejecting to take the money where the Texans are paying for it anyway?!!

In his third point he says that Medicaid expansion would also increase massive Medicaid fraud. In my opinion fraud can happen in any place and fraud should not deter the potential benefits that Medicaid expansion will have in Texas. Rather than complaining about fraud, Texas should put more resources to prevent Medicaid fraud. Also Medicaid expansion will provide financial relief to the hospitals and doctors who provide charity care for uninsured people.

In addition, he also fails to mention that having health insurance coverage makes people healthier physically, psychologically and financially which is good for the economy. The more people are insured the better they will lead healthier lives and in turn the more they will be capable of paying their taxes.

Therefore, Craig’s argument against Medicaid expansion is weak. I think in his argument Craig cherry-picked the downside of the Medicaid expansion; but the upside of the Medicaid expansion outweighs the downside by a huge margin.