What Obamacare Means for Texas: Taxpayers on the Hook for $24.3Billion

Press Release

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today issued the following statement regarding the estimated $24.3 billion in unfunded mandates the President's health care bill will impose on taxpayers in Texas:

"If the President's health care proposal is one thing, it's clever. By rearranging, not removing, unfunded mandates and hiding, not eliminating, special deals like the Louisiana Purchase, he has produced a package that may look new at first glance, but upon closer review, in fact does just what the previously-rejected bills would have done: displaces Texas' priorities with Washington's priorities and sweetheart deals," Sen. Cornyn said.

Background

The President's proposal calls for the largest expansion in the program's history. As a result, states will be forced to pay a substantial share of the required new spending. An analysis of the President's new proposal by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission estimates that the Medicaid section alone will saddle Texas with as much as $24.3 billion in unfunded mandates, which will crowd out other Texas priorities like education and law enforcement. If the other Medicaid provisions were the same as the Senate-passed bill and the President's new formula was adopted, the President's proposal would mean $22.3 billion in new program spending for the state of Texas. Additionally, the President's proposal allows certain income disregards to continue, putting more Texans on the Medicaid rolls at a cost of an additional $2 billion over 10 years.

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