A Texas Health Association PAC recently released its list of 2018 primary endorsees, primarily based on their vote for a rate-increase scheme on the backs of nursing home residents and taxpayers.
The Texas Health Care Association proclaims itself as “the largest long-term care association in Texas,” and “comprised of several-hundred licensed non-profit and for-profit skilled nursing facilities.”
On January 29, the group released their list of endorsements, which on the House side reads as a Who’s Who list of representatives that voted in favor of House Bill 2766 by State Rep. JD Sheffield (R-Stephenville).
That bill earned the moniker “Granny Tax” because it would effectively tax nursing home residents and remit those funds back to the nursing homes under the auspices of a state fee. In other words, the measure sought to allow nursing homes to raise prices and blame someone else.
With similar measures having been shot down multiple times over the course of twenty years, the current “Nursing Home Reinvestment allowance” (i.e., the granny tax) would force those paying for their own care to pony up an extra $4,000.
In addition to the increased levy on nursing home residents, the cost of administering the program would fall on the taxpayers of the state via the General Fund, with the House analysis indicating a “significant fiscal impact” for the state.
Instead of imposing another tax, Texas should allow free-market principles to guide our payment systems, with higher quality facilities, better staffing, and practices to dictate higher payments while poor performers are eliminated. The most vulnerable in our society deserve better than higher prices and distortion of the forces that lead to quality care.
THCA House endorsees that voted for the Granny Tax include:
Rep. Chris Paddie (R-Marshall) HD 9
Rep. Travis Clardy (R-Nacogdoches) HD 11
Rep. Ernest Bailes (R-Shepherd) HD 18
Rep. Wayne Faircloth (R-Galveston) HD 23
Rep. Paul Workman (R-Austin) HD 47
Rep. Hugh Shine (R-Temple) HD 55
Rep. J.D. Sheffield (R-Gatesville) HD 59
Rep. Lynn Stucky (R-Denton) HD 64
Rep. Four Price (R-Amarillo) HD 87
Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake) HD 98
Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth) HD 99
Rep. Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) HD 114
Rep. Lyle Larson (R-San Antonio) HD 122
Rep. Sarah Davis (R-Houston) HD 147
