Dewhurst says health care overhaul will bust Texas' budget

Jul 29, 2010 — The Dallas Morning News

Todd J. Gillman

Jul. 29, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- WASHINGTON -- Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst warned Wednesday that new federal health care legislation will bust Texas' budget, saddling state taxpayers with $27 billion in extra costs over the next decade.

"That's an astounding number for us," Dewhurst told the Texas State Society at a breakfast that included a half-dozen members of Congress. "We're on the hook for all those folks we've been trying to get to sign up for Medicaid."

Democrats disputed Dewhurst's estimate.

He said that doubling the state's Medicaid rolls will mean that health care will claim an ever-bigger share of the state budget. And that segment has already grown from one-quarter of the budget to one-third in the last seven years.

"Arguably, we have to crowd out public education or higher education to pay for this, or raise taxes," Dewhurst said. "Those are unsustainable numbers. Totally unsustainable."

Republican state leaders in Texas have cited the same cost estimates, but backers of the new health care law view those figures as wildly inflated.

Texas has 6.1 million uninsured residents, the most of any state, and leads the nation with roughly 27 percent of adults younger than 65 lacking health insurance.

Health policy analysts say Texas will see a spike in costs, but mainly because, until now, it made it harder to qualify for Medicaid than did most other states.

The Kaiser Family Foundation, along with the Urban Institute, estimates that adding 1.8 million adults to Medicaid will cost Texas $2.6 million between 2014 and 2019, because the federal government will pick up most of the cost.

The Dewhurst estimate doesn't take into account that state and local governments will spend less on care for uninsured patients.

An aide to Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, who introduced Dewhurst at the breakfast, cited Congressional Budget Office projections that Texas would face only $1.4 billion in extra costs this decade because of the expansion of health care.

Dewhurst, a Republican who presides over the state Senate, has been making regular trips to Washington to consult with the state's lobbying arm, the Office of State-Federal Relations, and members of its congressional delegation.

He said he was most concerned about federal health care policy, along with energy proposals that include taxes on carbon emissions to combat climate change. That legislation has stalled, but critics say it would raise energy prices and hurt key sectors of the Texas economy.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0046-47430682