Rep. Doggett Speaks in Favor of a Motion to Replace Cuts to Medicaid and CHIP by Closing Tax Loopholes

Rep. Doggett's full remarks as delivered follow below:

This effort, like so many other aspects on thisreconciliation matter, is really just designed to place the burden on our mostvulnerable neighbors for the effort to try to get our budget in betterorder. In giving the states much broader discretion, the only way we willsave money is if that discretion is exercised in order to deny more health careto more people.

While the Affordable Care Act extended insurance coverage toover 30 million of the uninsured, the only way that goal can be fully fulfilledis for Medicaid to be accessible to those who need it the most. Denyingcoverage to those in Medicaid, or setting up various phony restrictions such asfrequent renewal of coverage in hopes that some poor people will be unable toaccess coverage, just means that fewer children will get vaccinations, fewerpregnant women will get the prenatal care that they need, fewer seniors will beable to access quality nursing home care or other types of long termcare. And it means, as several of my colleagues have noted, that we'llfind 400,000 people losing their coverage.

Like the Republican plan to eliminate the Prevention andPublic Health Fund, it doesn't really save our society money in the longrun. These newly uninsured individuals will still need health care—andmany of them will receive the most expensive form of it by filling ouremergency rooms.

Just like the Chairman's plan to block grant Medicaid, thisproposal is done under the guise of giving the states more authority overMedicaid programs. We've had some experience with this in Texas. InTexas, in 2010, Governor Perry was given almost $850 million extra dollars forMedicaid. I've yet to find one child or one senior who got improvedhealth care services as a result of that near billion dollars of federalexpenditures. In fact, Texas, within a few days of receiving this $850billion, even though it was near the bottom of the states in reimbursements tophysicians, took the near billion dollars from the federal government andproceeded to cut those payments further, using the money to plug unrelatedbudget holes.

I have no confidence that the changes being made here todaywill result in anything other than substantial reductions in the quality ofcare and in the number of people who can access care in my home state. Noone can doubt that we need to address our rising deficit. This motion ensures that when considering ways to solve our debt, that we ask not just Ms. Lopez, who is a senior trying to access long-term healthcare, but Mr. Exxon to contribute a little in this effort to find a fair andresponsible budget. The Republican way—just taking from the pockets ofthe elderly and cutting health services for children without closing a singletax loophole— is just the opposite of fair, responsible, and reasonable. I support this motion and hope that it can be adopted to add a tad of equity inwhat is a very inequitable reconciliation measure.