Texas House pushes bipartisan bills expanding telemedicine and postpartum care

“It’s very important that we put health care and health front and center, and the House is doing that,” said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, adding it’s rare for members to get behind such a broad spectrum of legislation all at once. “That’s a big deal,” Coleman said.

Some of the measures, especially one extending health care coverage for mothers in the months after childbirth, have been passed before by the Republican-controlled House only to die in the more conservative state Senate.

But the package was perhaps most notable for excluding any effort to draw down billions in federal funding through Medicaid expansion, a step most other states have taken and that has been long prioritized by health care advocates, Democrats and some moderate Republicans.

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Some House members believe they have found a way to appease conservative concerns about expanding Medicaid through legislation that is budget neutral and contingent on federal support. But that measure, HB 3871, still has yet to be heard in committee, one of the early hurdles of the legislative process.

“It’s an elephant in the room that will be addressed,” said House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, though he declined to say whether the bill itself, which is co-authored by several Republicans, would be heard.

Phelan appeared to walk back remarks from early in the session, when he said there could be a path forward on a Republican-supported approach to drawing down the expansion dollars. He noted that expansion itself would help only a small fraction of Texans, by some estimates between 700,000 and 1 million.

“We’re talking about millions of Texans with these bills,” Phelan said about the measures highlighted Wednesday. On Medicaid expansion, he added, “We can talk about that legislation when it gets to the House floor.”

In addition to extending coverage for new moms, the legislation unveiled Wednesday would expand access to telehealth services, reduce red tape for children on Medicaid and re-create a task force on health care disparities that had been disbanded before the pandemic. It would also create discount buying clubs for common high-cost medications including insulin and epinephrine.

“We’re thrilled to see that leaders of the Texas House are committed to passing critical health care legislation this session,” said Stephanie Rubin, CEO of Texans Care for Children, though she added the group was disappointed that Medicaid expansion was excluded.

The package also includes a handful of partisan bills, including one from Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, that would allow low-cost, quasi-insurance plans to reenter the market, without requirements that they cover most benefits or pre-existing conditions.

“Everyone up here wants to see more Texans with health insurance coverage that meets their individual needs,” Frank said, stressing that the plans would create more market competition.

Health care advocates and lobbyists for insurers spoke out against that bill Tuesday, warning it would likely siphon off healthy people without providing quality, comprehensive care.

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