Sen. Steve Ogden, the Bryan Republican who’s the Senate’s chief budget writer, said Thursday that money collected from a fee on electricity bills should possibly be used to draw down more federal matching money, perhaps in the state-federal Medicaid health insurance program for the poor, elderly and disabled.
The state budget passed by the House runs about $6 billion short of current funding, if you count loss of temporarily higher federal match money, recommended provider fee cuts and failure to add money for inflation and growth in use of services and enrollment. The budget shaping up in the Senate also shorts Medicaid, but not as much.