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Texas Briefly

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Biden administration rescinds Texas' Medicaid plan extension

AUSTIN (AP) — The Biden administration Friday rescinded an approved extension of the Medicaid agreement in Texas, which has the nation's most uninsured residents and for years has refused calls to expand the federal health insurance program.

Texas is one of only 12 states that have resisted expanding coverage under a key provision of former President Barack Obama’s heath care law. Instead, state Republican leaders have negotiated waivers that provide billions of federal dollars in reimbursements to hospitals that serve the uninsured.

Texas' current waiver expires in 2022.

The Biden administration has tried to financially incentivize GOP holdouts to opt into expansion, but none have indicated plans to change course.

Texas' waiver had been approved through 2030 under an agreement worked out with the Trump administration. But in a letter to Texas officials Friday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the agency previously “erred” because the approval that took place during the coronavirus pandemic did not include the normal opportunity for public notice and comment.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott blasted the decision that he said had followed months of negotiations with federal officials.

“With this action, the Biden administration is deliberately betraying Texans who depend on the resources made possible through this waiver,” Abbott said.

In a statement, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pressed the importance of public comment, saying “stakeholder feedback forms the backbone of programs that help achieve the best possible results for beneficiaries.”

Texas received its first Medicaid waiver a decade ago, and GOP leaders have resisted calls to opt into expanding Medicaid since then.

In Texas, the incentives for expansion would send the state about $5 billion over two years, and the state’s share of expanding coverage would be about $3.1 billion. More than 1.4 million people in the state could become eligible for coverage.

Autopsy: Man killed self during airport shootout with police

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A handgun-wielding man who opened fire outside the San Antonio airport died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, not from police gunfire as officials initially said, according to a police statement Friday.

On Thursday, Police Chief William McManus said the man was fatally shot outside a San Antonio International Airport terminal hours after he'd shot at vehicles from a highway overpass in the northern part of the Texas city. In the Friday police statement, the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office concluded that an autopsy on the man and evidence examined at the shooting scene showed the man had shot himself after receiving a non-fatal wound from Officer John Maines' gun.

Police continued to withhold the identity of the suspect until the medical examiner could establish it conclusively.

The city's airport was placed on lockdown after police got a call around 2:30 p.m. Thursday about a car driving the wrong way on a road at the airport, McManus said Thursday. On Friday, police said Maines stopped the car and confronted the suspect, who jumped from his car and opened fire.

No one else was hit by gunfire.

The shooter, who was not identified, was a man in his 40s who police have interacted with before and had a history of mental illness, McManus said.

The shooter is believed to be the same person who earlier in the day opened fire from a busy overpass in northern San Antonio, McManus said. The man matched the description given on the man seen shooting from an overpass, and the shell casings left behind matched the .45 caliber handgun used at the airport.

San Marcos Record

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P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666