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Office of the Texas Attorney General

AUSTIN (News Release) - On April 16, the Biden Administration stripped away Texas’s 1115 Medicaid waiver extension, which would have ensured stable funding for providers of healthcare for children, people with disabilities, and the elderly. To secure the assistance that countless Texans rely on, Attorney General Ken Paxton fired back with a lawsuit to reinstate the extension of the Medicaid waiver and prevent the federal government from forcing the adoption of its own unsuitable program. 

 “The Biden Administration cannot simply breach a contract and topple Texas’s Medicaid system without warning. This disgusting and unlawful abuse of power aimed at sovereign states must end,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Not only does this violate agency regulations and threaten to rip a $30 billion hole in Texas’s budget, it was clearly intended to force our state into inefficiently expanding Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This would be a disaster for our state, and yet President Biden seems intent on thrusting his bloated model of government on everyone—including Texas.” 

Texas is in contact with the federal government on numerous aspects of its Medicaid program, including a temporary “Demonstration Project” that allows states to achieve healthcare-related goals while tracking efficiency, success, and needed changes along the way. In 2020, Texas commissioned a survey of Medicaid providers and determined more time was needed for its current Demonstration Project. After many weeks of negotiations, Texas’s request for an eight-year extension was granted by the Trump Administration in January 2021. 

The Biden Administration rescinded that extension without warning, proper authority, reasoning, or the required notice-and-comment period. 

 Read a copy of the filing here.