Democrats vow battle over cuts in health care

By Gary Scharrer, El Paso Times

 March 4, 2003

Harry Cabluck / Associated Press

Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, foreground, said Monday in Austin that it's not too early to protect programs that help sick children, the poor, disabled and elderly.

AUSTIN -- A couple dozen Democratic lawmakers said Monday they will stand firm and fight proposed budget cuts that could boot 600,000 children from health coverage and knock at least 40,000 seniors and disabled persons from nursing homes.

"We're not going to negotiate at the expense of pregnant women, sick children and others who need health care, period," said Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin.

If the cuts materialize, health coverage would end for 22,000 El Paso children now covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program, and more than a quarter of nearly 80,000 children would lose covered by Medicaid, a joint federal and state health program for low-income children.

"A society that values cuts over kids is a society that does not invest in hope for its future," said Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, one of three El Paso Democrats participating in a Capitol news conference.

Democrat legislators have tallied the toll of cuts that Gov. Rick Perry's Health and Human Services Commissioner, Albert Hawkins, presented last week in his agency's effort to save money. Perry has directed agencies to cut budgets to help fill a projected $9.9 billion shortfall without raising taxes.

Perry has called the budget cuts a preliminary step in the budgeting process, and he called the criticism partisan. He has repeatedly said that it's too early to worry about the proposed cuts. He says he trusts lawmakers who ultimately must decide how to use the projected $54.1 billion in state money in the 2004-05 spending plan.

"Playing the 'what if?' scenario at this particular time is not productive, and I'm not going to play that," Perry said Friday.

"He's just got a preliminary response," Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said of the Democrats' stand.

State agencies and lawmakers must distinguish between "wants" and "needs," Perry spokesman Gene Acuna said.

"As you go through the process, legislators may make the decision that that's now what's in the best interest of Texas. These are options and scenarios -- not firm decisions that have been made," Acuna said, adding that lawmakers must "live within available revenue."

House Health and Human Services Subcommittee Chair Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson, criticized Democrats for unleashing an "attack at this point." "It's way too early in the appropriations process to be reaching conclusions."

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst told the Associated Press that his draft budget fully funds the CHIP, though he did not provide details. "It is my hope that we are going to be able to continue to provide coverage for all the folks on Medicaid and CHIP."

But as long as Republican leaders resist a tax increase, severe budget cuts are unavoidable, said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston.

"Tell me where the money is going to come from, because it's not in the bank, and it won't be in the bank," he said. "You can discuss it all day long, but when the numbers don't add up, they just don't add up."

Minerva Garcia, an Austin mother, attended the news conference to talk about the importance of CHIP, which covers two of her children.

One of her daughters faced serious health problems and hospitalization, she said.

"Before, I waited until they were very seriously ill to take them to the emergency room because I couldn't afford it. Now, I don't worry about that," she said. "If they're sick and if I can't help them at home, I take them to their doctors. It saved her life. Don't have the kids suffer."

The Health and Human Services Commission also is considering a 33 percent cut in payments to doctors, hospitals and other health- care providers. Doing so would "dramatically destabilize the health care infrastructure in border counties," El Paso physician Dr. Dionicio "Manny" Alvarez said in a letter to Senate Finance Chairman Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo.

Alvarez is chairman of the Border Health Caucus, which represents about 10,000 Texas physicians in San Antonio, Corpus Christi and other border communities.