By Edgar Walters, for The Texas Tribune
A board of medical professionals appointed by Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that the state should provide health coverage to low-income Texans under the Affordable Care Act — a move the Republican-led Legislature has opposed.
The 15-member Texas Institute of Health Care Quality and Efficiency recommended that the state’s health commissioner be authorized to negotiate a Texas-specific agreement with the federal government to expand health coverage to the poor, “using available federal funds.”
“We’re trying to look at actions whereby more Texans can be covered,” said board chairman Steve Berkowitz, the president and founder of SMB Health Consulting. “We’re trying to take the politics out of it.”
Under the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health law, the federal government has offered to foot more than 90 percent of the bill for states that expand their Medicaid programs to cover adults living in poverty. Perry and other Republican leaders have criticized the program, which could insure more than 1 million currently uncovered Texans, as inefficient.
