A federal Medicaid waiver approved for the state of Texas in the waning days of the Trump administration has been rescinded by the Biden administration.
The waiver called for spending as much as $100 billion for health care for low-income Texans over the next ten years.
Officially, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services revoked the waiver on technical grounds, maintaining that the agency “… erred in exempting the state from the normal public notice process – a critical priority for soliciting stakeholder feedback and ensuring public awareness.” The Washington Post, however, reports that according to two unnamed federal health officials, the decision was “… an effort to push state officials toward accepting the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, which would cover more low-income residents….”
According to the Post, “Health advocates had described that waiver as an effort to work around the federal Medicaid expansion by setting up alternate funding to help cover the costs of uninsured patients.” The Post notes that the Biden administration has been urging Texas and the other 11 states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care to do so.
Learn more about the CMS decision to rescind the Texas Medicaid waiver from the Washington Post article “Biden officials rescind Trump’s okay for Texas’s $100 billion-plus Medicaid plan” and go here to see CMS’s letter announcing and explaining its decision.