Last month, the Biden Administration rescinded Texas’s Medicaid waiver extension, which would have ensured stable funding for providers of healthcare for children, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Calling the move an “unlawful abuse of power aimed at sovereign states”, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit to reinstate the extension, which was to expire next year, and prevent the federal government from forcing the adoption of its own unsuitable program.
- ‘Unlawful Abuse of Power’: The Biden administration was slapped with a lawsuit as Texas Attorney General countered the changes to the state’s federally funded portion of Medicaid last month. Ken Paxton called the Biden administration’s move an “unlawful abuse of power aimed at sovereign states”.
- ‘Political Strategy’: While the government decision does not revoke healthcare funding through 2022, Paxton claimed that the move was a political strategy to force states like Texas to expand their Medicaid program under the federal healthcare plan. “The Biden Administration cannot simply breach a contract and topple Texas’s Medicaid system without warning,” he said.
- Waiver Acted as a Bridge : Biden pushed billions of dollars in federal incentives earlier this year to encourage Texas lawmakers to join 38 other states and expand their Medicaid. The waiver was originally intended to serve as a bridge to help states cope with expanding their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act. But, in 2012, the Supreme Court ruled the ACA could not require states to expand their programs.
- Many AGs Part of Lawsuit: The lawsuit argues that Texas “will be harmed by the imminent increase in energy prices, infringement upon its sovereign functions, and economic injury to its citizens directly caused by” the Biden administration’s estimated social cost of greenhouse gas emissions. The Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming attorneys general are also part of the lawsuit against the Biden administration.
- Paxton’s Arguments: “Not only does this violate agency regulations and threaten to rip a $30 billion hole in Texas’s budget, it was clearly intended to force our state into inefficiently expanding Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA),” the Texas attorney general said. “This would be a disaster for our state, and yet President Biden seems intent on thrusting his bloated model of government on everyone—including Texas.”