Texas lawmakers are looking at ways to cut down on billions in fraud and waste in Medicaid, health funding for the poor, they announced January 20.

The question is whether the proposed laws will discourage medical practitioners from operating or accepting Medicaid as payment, a Texas Tech professor said.

Medicaid fraud and waste cost Texas $6 billion from 2004-11, lawmakers said.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, and chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, plans to tackle that number with two pieces of legislation aimed at reducing Medicaid fraud and improving Medicaid services based on quality of care.

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In last Tuesday's State of the State Address, Governor Rick Perry drew anger from his critics as he stood firm against allowing Texas to expand Medicaid to low-income adults. Medicaid expansion is part of the federal Affordable Care Act but Perry said broadening the program in Texas would drive "millions more into an unsustainable system."

Supporters of Medicaid expansion say it would make healthcare available to millions of uninsured low-income Texans while making Texas eligible for a boost in federal funds if it agreed to the expansion.

Perry's $1.8 billion promise of tax relief was one of the main highlights in his address. Although Perry didn't go into details, the governor's office posted a link on Perry's website that would allow taxpayers to voice their preferences on a number of options, including lower property taxes, expanding the state's sales tax holiday and increasing the property tax exemption. The selections also included options for businesses, including lowering the business tax rate.

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Grain in the News:

The Texas Department of Agriculture announced earlier this month that Texas grain producers have voted against the establishment of a producer assessment to self-insure against financial risks associated with selling/storing grain. TDA certified all the ballots and the final results were 507 for and 1,171 against.

A total of 1,678 valid ballots were certified by TDA and Texas Secretary of State officials based on the United States Department of Agriculture's records of certified grain producers. By law, the proposal had to receive at least two-thirds of the total votes to pass.

The referendum was important for grain producers to have the opportunity to decide, through an impartial, electoral process, whether the risk of financial loss from placing grain on storage deposit with a grain warehouse is significant enough to create an insurance indemnity program.

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Water in the News:

For many Texans, water isn't much of a problem. Or at least they don't think it is.

That was part of a conclusion that University of Texas faculty made after examining public opinion polls of the problems that matter to Texans. They wrote in a January article for the Texas Tribune that less than 4 percent of respondents have thought of water as a top problem.

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