Texas Council urges informed debate on Medicaid reform
SANDY SKELTON

The Texas Council of Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Centers commends Gov. Rick Perry for speaking out in recognition of the need to improve our Texas Medicaid program to ensure it is sustained into the future for Texans who need it.

Nationally, we now spend more on Medicaid than Medicare. In Texas, Medicaid is an $18 billion program comprising 25 percent of our budget and continues to grow.

Importantly, Medicaid reform should not be about providing less care to fewer people at lower reimbursement rates. To the contrary, it should be about assuring that more people get the care they need while paying providers more fairly - and doing so in a taxpayer-friendly way.

The Texas Council supports Governor Perry's call for innovative approaches to solve this problem and has been impressed with our Health and Human Services Commission leadership's command of the options and issues involved in this complex area.

While we are encouraged by the recent focus on finding ways to improve our Texas Medicaid program, we urge policy-makers to look carefully before they leap.

The Medicaid reforms being pursued on a pilot basis in Florida, for example, are touted as worthy of emulation by other states. But in the case of mental health-related services, "reforms" there represent little more than a slashing of services - and in a state long known for limited mental health services.

The Community MHMR Centers of Texas have a track record of providing the state a locally managed, cost certain means of delivering mental health services- and we hope the changes ahead will instead build from our strong foundation."

The Texas Council of Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Centers urges the most comprehensive, detailed and public of debates by legislators, interest groups and the public in this critical area of public policy to help shape the future of this critical human services program.

Mr. Skelton is the executive director of the Texas Council.