Texas Republicans Show What Government Takeover of Health Care Really Means – You Go to the Doctors They Choose

Government Control of Health Care is a Conservative, Not Liberal Goal

To listen to the Conservatives who control the Republican Party and who dominate its race for the Presidency government takeover and control of health care is the most critical issue facing America.  And they are right!  Except it is not that the opposition Democrats who are the problem, it is the Conservatives.

Consider the situation in Virginia and other states.  The Republicans have passed laws that say what procedures a patient must have during a visit with a physician, and what the physician must do and say.  And in Texas the state has decided exactly which health care centers a women may visit and which she may not.  See Texas gets a lot of Federal dollars to help pay for women’s health care when those women cannot afford that care.

Texas has received federal funds since 2007 to pay for birth control, health screening and family exams for a subset of low-income women in the federal-state Medicaid program. The state got $34 million last year and provided another $7 million from state coffers for the program, which doesn't apply to all women on Medicaid. More than 100,000 women in the state currently receive the services, at one of hundreds of participating clinics.

But in Texas the state legislature and its Government have decided that they should decide which clinics those women should go to, and which they should not.

State legislators have long sought to bar funds for services provided at clinics that also carried out abortions under separate programs. State officials finally moved ahead with new rules this year barring Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions in addition to basic women's health services.

But see the Federal Government, which is daily accused of being in the business of taking over health care actually is protecting patients.  Under Federal law what Texas is doing is not allowed.

Officials at the federal agency charged with overseeing the Medicaid program said the state could not restrict patients' access to particular providers and still receive federal money, and wrote to state officials Thursday to tell them that the agency would stop funding that part of the Medicaid program within months.

And here, in the clearest words possible is the stand in favor of freedom from government control of health care.

"Medicaid law is clear—patients, not state government officials, are able to choose the health-care providers that are best for them and their families," said Cindy Mann, a top official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a conference call with reporters after the letter was released. (emphasis added)

So what happens to women who are not able to get health care because Texas wants to choose the provider for them?  Well most will be able to find health care some place else, but for some the outcome will be illness and possibly pre-mature death.  A strange outcome for a policy implemented by people who claim they are guided by a “right to life” position.