The objective of the Task Force on Healthcare and Human Services is to reduce excessive government regulations, while leveraging the government’s role, where appropriate, to ensure program integrity and the judicious use of taxpayer-funded resources. The Task Force will examine some previous issues, including access to care and growing healthcare costs in both the public and private sectors, as well as new topics, such as improving the state’s adoption process. While both the state and federal governments hold extensive roles in the health and human services policy arena, the Task Force will focus on advancing policies that shrink government overreach where possible and ensure finite state resources are dedicated to those most in need.  

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Task Force Topics: 
 

• Access to Care: An ongoing and critical issue for Texas, the Task Force will explore options for reducing licensing and administrative requirements that hinder qualified healthcare professionals (medical, mental health, dental, vision) from providing patient care.   
   

• Healthcare Costs: Individual and employer healthcare costs continue to grow due to myriad factors. The Task Force will examine any opportunities to curb such growth at the state level, including eliminating onerous mandates, increasing price transparency, and encouraging greater education and accountability for healthcare consumers. 
   

• Healthcare Marketplace: Closely tied to costs is the strength of the healthcare marketplace. A viable marketplace based on free-market principles will yield a greater choice of coverage products and reduced costs for individual consumers and employers. The Task Force will look to build upon past legislative successes by encouraging innovation and healthy competition in health coverage options.  
   

• Taxpayer Resources: With Health & Human Services comprising more than a third of the current state budget, it is crucial that the finite taxpayer resources supporting these programs are used astutely. The Task Force will revisit past work on increasing efficiencies in Medicaid and study any new proposals for increasing efficiencies and savings in health and human services programs.  
   

• Adoption Services: The Task Force will examine the Child Protective Services’ adoption process and determine if any policy changes are needed to improve this process to place more foster children in permanent, loving homes and assist women who choose adoption over abortion.