Judge Faults Texas for Health Problem

Aug. 30 -- As Al Gore bashes George W. Bush on health care, a federal judge has ruled that Texas is failing to adequately care for poor children — providing new ammunition for the vice president to use against his rival.

The court said earlier this month that Texas has failed to live up to a 1996 agreement to make major changes in its Medicaid system, and ordered the state to improve problems with medical coverage by October.

Among other points in his ruling, U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice said in his Aug. 14 ruling that the state failed to inform families of nearly 1 million children enrolled in Medicaid about benefits they could have collected.

Justice also criticized the state’s efforts to save money by putting Medicaid patients into managed-care plans and found the state was not adequately providing dental care, regular checkups or transportation to doctors for low-income families.

Problems Predate Bush

Bush defended the efforts of his administration, telling reporters tonight in Cincinnati that he is “making a concerted effort” to provide health care for children in Texas.

“Ours is a compassionate state,” Bush said. “We want to make sure that children available for our programs are signed up.”

Bush went on to blame federal regulations for holding up his state’s efforts to make progress.

Mike Jones, a spokesman for the Texas governor’s office, said Bush should not be blamed for problems that started before he was even elected to run the state. Those shortfalls began under a Democratic administration, Jones said. In fact, he says, Bush has pushed through recent improvements to the Texas health care system.

“Just last year, Governor Bush added another $1.8 billion in new health care initiatives, many of them aimed at the poor and elderly in our state,” Jones said.

Susan Zinn, lead attorney on the class-action lawsuit that resulted in the 1996 agreement, acknowledged the Bush administration has made some improvements, but said it has still fallen short.