Local Impacts of Extending Medicaid in Texas

Extending Medicaid to Low-Income Adults...What's in it for Your Community?

Texas has an extraordinary opportunity to expand health care coverage that would benefit up to 2 million of its citizens. The federal government would pay about $100 billion toward this expansion over 10 years, with the state responsible for only about $15 billion under a moderate enrollment scenario. 

Extending Medicaid to low-income adults certainly would benefit the newly eligible. It also would benefit the wider economy and reduce demands on local indigent health programs and hospital charity care.

Read about how we got our numbers

The amount of state match necessary to extend Medicaid to low-income adults would equal a small fraction of current local government and hospital spending on low-income health care. What's more, covering low-income adults will result in new local revenue because it will generate good-paying jobs and commerce. So local governments will SAVE on health costs at the same time they are GAINING new sales and property taxes without raising tax rates.

At the same time, more people in every area of Texas would have health insurance, doctors and other health workers would be more fairly compensated for treating low-income folks, and the state could stop spending so much on piecemeal programs that only treat some health problems. People with health insurance will live longer and be healthier--and the many low-income adults in Texas who are parents will be able to take better care of their kids, too.

Sound like a good deal for everyone? Find out how YOUR local area would benefit! Click on your legislative district in the table below to download a PDF showing the fiscal impact to the district and the statewide total. (To download the reports, right-click the link and choose "Save Linked File As...")

Impact of Medicaid Extension and Local Spending For Health Care By County

• This table shows the local tax, health spending, enrollment, and federal funds implications for each county.

Local Tax Implications By Legislative District - Senate

Download All Tax Implications By District - Senate (8.4MB)

Local Tax Implications By Legislative District - House Of Representatives

Download All Tax Implications By District - House (39.6MB)