The intent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was to get more people covered and drive down health care costs.  According to Texas officials and an article in the NY Times the PPACA may already be doing just the opposite in addition to the increased costs and reduced benefits already being seen by consumers on individual and company health plans right now.

TEXAS: Several Republican lawmakers are proposing an unprecedented solution to the state’s estimated $25 billion budget shortfall: dropping out of the federal Medicaid program. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, estimates Texas could save $60 billion between 2013 and 2019 by opting out of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, dropping coverage for acute care but continuing to fund long-term care services. With 3.6 million children, people with disabilities and impoverished Texans enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission will release its own study on the effect of ending the state’s participation in the federal match program.

Currently, the Texas program costs $40 billion per biennium, with the federal government footing 60 percent of the bill. As a result of federal health care reform, millions of additional Texans will become eligible for Medicaid as the government plan expands the number of people eligible for the plan over the next few years coming to 2014.