Medicaid Database in Texas

Both Medicare and Medicaid are health insurance policies which differ only due to the types of people eligible for the insurance cover. The Medicaid offers financial aid to those whose resources and income are limited. This includes pregnant women, eligible immigrants, children under 19 years, adults without dependent children or caring for a child, and those living with disabilities. On the other hand, the Medicare policy covers only those who are 65 years and above, those with disabilities even if they are under 65 years, and anyone with the End-Stage Renal Disease no matter the age their age, that is those who require dialysis or require kidney transplant due to permanent kidney failure. Therefore, the in comparison to the Medicare health insurance, the Medicaid health insurance is broader regarding those who can be covered and also in terms of the benefits one can acquire from the policy. For this reason, there exists a disparity in the U.S. States reactions towards expanding the Medicaid insurance policy to most of them still retain the Medicare system even though they are justified by the fact that the Supreme Court did not set any specific deadline for the adoption of the Medicaid expansion ("Status of State Action on the Medicaid Expansion Decision", 2016). To explore the extent to which the States have expanded into adopting the Medicare insurance cover Texas will be taken as a major example.

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Notably, the Medicaid is meant to provide an array of medical insurance coverage policies such that it assimilates most of the people who are uninsured. It is an implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The Medicaid coverage can expand the cover for low-income adults up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. However, states such as Texas have only managed to expand the cover up to 18% ("Status of State Action on the Medicaid Expansion Decision," 2016).

The Affordable Care Act has initiated the expansion of Medicaid policy in the health organizations in the U.S. Texas, more specifically Dallass Parkland Hospital, treated a lot of people without insurance cover since the majority of the people are uninsured. The hospital treated all sorts of patients regardless of having an insurance cover. Consequently, the hospital had to spend approximately $ 5.5 billion in uncompensated care in the year 2014. The uncompensated cash would be recovered if the Hospital (Texas) would expand the Medicaid insurance policy in the state. As already mentioned the policy would help cover the health care expenses for the poor but working people who can hardly afford the health insurance payments on the current exchanges. This benefits would obviously benefit the state but the politics in Texas: the fact that Medicaid is part of the Obamacare and Texas Legislature is dominated by the Republicans, which caused them to keep away from expanding the insurance policy within the state. Through the Affordable Care Act, the state was offered $100 billion federal money to expand the Medicaid health insurance, but the state did not take the money. The Medicaid expansion was thus at a standstill in Texas in 2015 ("Texas Politicians and Businesses Feud over Medicaid Expansion," 2015).

Currently, the Medicaid expansion in Texas has still been significantly vetoed by the Governor Rick Perry and the rest of the Republican constituting the majority of the Legislature of Texas. This is against the wants of the Democrats who have already introduced the HB 3791 legislation which would help initiate a whole strategy towards expanding the Medicaid. According to an article by advisory.com, the bill is still pending in the house ("Where the states stand on Medicaid expansion," 2016). Texas is among 17 states (such as Idaho, Maine, Kansas and Florida) that have the expansion at a standstill.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the Medicaid is definitely full of benefits for making the health care services accessible to most people. However, there is a lot of political commotion (between the Republicans and the Democrats) within the states since the such as Texas in response to adopting the expansion law as ruled out by the Supreme Court. The major thing that might be giving them that ability to reject the expansion is the fact that even though the Supreme Court passed the law, it left the ultimate decision of whether or not to participate in the expansion in the hands of the state leaders and the governors within the nation. This however does not mean that the Medicaid is inferior to the Medicare health insurance. In fact, the Medicaid is full of worthwhile benefits as it may be taken to stand for equity in the access to medical care services throughout the U.S. nations. Everyone is entitled to accessing health care services regardless of their ability to pay which is what Medicaid health insurance coverage presents. Furthermore, considering the fact that the hospitals should not send away patients, like the mentioned case of Parklands Hospital in Texas, the States should consider adopting the Medicare coverage so that they can serve the whole society without any fears of unnecessary expenses.

References

Status of State Action on the Medicaid Expansion Decision. (2016). Kff.org. Retrieved 5 October 2016, from http://kff.org/health-reform/state-indicator/state-activity-around-expanding-medicaid-under-the-affordable-care-act/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D

Texas Politicians And Businesses Feud Over Medicaid Expansion. (2015). NPR.org. Retrieved 5 October 2016, from http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/05/29/410520561/texas-politicians-and-businesses-feud-over-medicaid-expansion

Where the states stand on Medicaid expansion. (2016). Advisory.com. Retrieved 5 October 2016, from https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/resources/primers/medicaidmap