Journal Vol. 2: Bring on the New Year!

Friends and neighbors – 

We’re two weeks into 2020 and I’m moving forward with what I’ll call objective optimism. Despite partisan divisions, hopeful signs abound. Policymakers are beginning to look more to objective analysis and less to ideological dogma. We saw it during the 86th Legislature. I see much more ahead.

The shift is most apparent in the field of healthcare. Health insurance coverage, in particular – where Texas ranks dead last in the nation – demands our most serious and sincere efforts, and policy-makers know it. For a 4-minute summary of why it’s reasonable to expect that the Legislature will finally take up the challenge, check out my recent interview on CBS’ Inside Texas Politics. Yes, we’re talking about expanding healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act, a/k/a Medicaid Expansion. But we’re talking about it in a different way, at a different time, in a different political environment, and we’re equipped with better information (from the 36 states that have already done it). Potentially, we’re talking about a bipartisan achievement comparable to the landmark school finance reform of the last legislative session. It’s time for Texas to leap from laggard to leader. And we can.

December highlights:

• During December’s Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing in Austin, much of our discussion and testimony concerned the healthcare “fiscal cliff” that Texas now faces because of our historic refusal to expand health coverage eligibility under the state’s Medicaid program. More on this below in the Policy Spotlight.
• A week later, I traveled to Phoenix to attend the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Capitol Forum. A sort of idea-exchange for state legislators around the country, it offered a heartening divergence from partisan laziness in favor of objectively effective policy.

Back home in District 16:

• Our own Dallas ISD teacher Eric Hale, who teaches at David G. Burnet Elementary School, was recognized as “the top urban teacher in the nation” by The Council of The Great City Schools and McGraw-Hill Education. Congratulations Eric.
• More than 1,000 people from every part of our region gathered for the Dallas Citizens Council’s annual meeting, where former U.S. Secretary of Defense General James Mattis held us spellbound with a refreshing and genuine blend of humor and humility, patriotism and leadership.
• Constituents visited me and my staff concerning a variety of matters, including the lack of mental health resources for teens, tax policy, criminal justice, and more. I talked with employees and executives of several North Texas businesses to learn more about the exciting work being done by our local companies in the fields of energy, technology, and aviation.

Policy Spotlight: Texas’ Healthcare Fiscal Cliff Texas is on the verge of forfeiting approximately $12 billion per biennium in federal support payments for indigent healthcare. That’s $12 billion of our own tax dollars that won’t be coming back to the Texas economy unless we fix the state Medicaid system next legislative session. How did we get here? How do we fix it? We got here by refusing to accept the federal government’s initial offer to pay for making health insurance coverage available to more very-low income Texans under the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”). Instead, in 2011 and 2017 the state negotiated short-term deals (“Section 1115 waivers”) to get federal support for the state’s far more restrictive Medicaid program. Rather than covering more people under the ACA, where the cost would have been funded by the federal government at 100% for several years and at 90% thereafter (newsflash: it does not drop to zero!), Texas chose to cover fewer people, fund the cost with local property taxes, and get far less in federal support. Worse still, the deal expires soon, and with it goes the $12B. The problem can be solved by expanding healthcare coverage under the ACA. Not politically possible? Of course it is. Several states with Republican leadership, like Ohio and Indiana, have been benefiting from Medicaid expansion for years. Like those states, Texas can expand coverage under the ACA while maintaining the flexibility to accommodate concerns and objectives from across the political spectrum.

A look ahead:   This month (January) I’ll be speaking at the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce’s Health Care Conference (the state of healthcare costs), the North Texas Economic Forum (healthcare as an economic driver), and the Texas Tribune’s The Future of Health Care (on, yes, the future of healthcare). To save yourself a drive to Edinburg, you can sign up to livestream the Tribune’s event here. Interesting fact:  The term “Super Bowl” appears to have been coined in Dallas. In a letter to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle regarding the “AFL-NFL Championship Game”, Lamar Hunt referred to it as “the Super Bowl”. The name stuck. Rising stars: During the Fall, my team and I enjoyed the great contributions of our interns Kendall Joyner, Smrithi Mahadevan, and Vanessa Rodriguez in our Austin office, and Jack Minigutti in our District office. Know someone who may be interested in a legislative internship? Please send us an email at District16.Johnson@senate.texas.gov to get the details. 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and our community. Please contact my Capitol Office at 512-462-0116 or our District Office at 214-750-2913 anytime if you have any questions or concerns.