Tag Archives: Texas uninsured

Houston Politics

Texoblogosphere: Week of July 20th

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The Texas Progressive Alliance asks #WhatHappenedToSandraBland as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff looks at the lawsuit filed against the state for refusing to issue birth certificates to children of undocumented immigrant mothers.

Lightseeker at Texas Kaos makes a compelling argument as to why the Democratic Party needs to sharpen its message in a way in which it resonates with and motivates the majority of D voters. Why we need a better Democratic story and how Sanders’ candidacy underscores this point.

Socratic Gadfly says that if Obama is going to visit a federal prison and talk about commuting sentences, he ought to throw the long bomb by going to Florida and freeing Leonard Peltier.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants you to know Greg Abbott screwed up child support payment upgrade. Republicans don’t really care about kids. You can tell by action after action.

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson. The rotting fruit of one-party rule in Williamson County, County GOP Elected Officials Using Courts For Petty Political Battles.

The disruption at Netroots Nation’s presidential town hall forum by activists associated with Black Lives Matter was a clash between the politics of the old-school Social Democrats and that of the New Democrats’ identity politics. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs thinks there will a coming-together of the two movements or a cleaving of the Democratic Party as the dynamic unfolds.

Neil at All People Have Value discussed Obama’s role in taking away our freedoms through the New Horizons mission to Pluto. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

The Texas Election Law Blog celebrates its second anniversary, and reviews the case that led to its beginning.

Ken Janda asks how can Texas continue to ask for billions of dollars in uncompensated care payments to hospitals for uninsured patients coming to emergency rooms, when more than one million of those people could be put into Medicaid Managed Care?

The TSTA Blog warns of “dangerous anti-educator” Scott Walker.

Texas Vox cheers the forthcoming end of coal.

Grits for Breakfast is pleased to see that funding has been allotted for research into the underlying scientific bases for the forensic tools and methods currently used in the criminal justice system.

David Ortez gives a graphical representation of the Houston Mayoral fundraising race.

Rachel Pearson explains why that video hit job on Planned Parenthood is “pure applesauce”.

Texas Clean Air Matters documents the trend towards clean, affordable power.

 

Houston OldYMCA

Today’s feature photo is a blast from the past– Houston’s Old YMCA building downtown.  It was demolished in 2011 (photo credit:  L. Wayne Ashley)

Houston Politics

Texas Health Scare: MediCaid, or CrisisCaid?

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In a week filled with more eye-catching stories like the Oscar Pistorius murder saga and the looming “Republiquester”, it’s perhaps not surprising that Healthcare news isn’t on the front burner. But make no mistake… some news out of the Sunshine State is THE most important story of this week.

Last summer, after the Supreme Court’s shocking decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, Republicans immediately stood up in defiance. The Governors of Texas, Florida, Arizona and other GOP-led states pledged then and there to fight every provision of Obamacare until their last breath. Florida Governor Rick Scott could be said the main instigator of this… after all it was his state that was the first to file suit against the law.

In a shocking policy reversal, the Florida Governor now supports Medicaid expansion… a most central tennet of the Affordable Care Act. His direct quote from is so dumbfounding, I have to share directly from the Tampa Bay Times…

“While the federal government is committed to pay 100 percent of the cost, I cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians the needed access to health care,” Scott said at a hastily called news conference at the Governor’s Mansion.

So basically… Rick Scott had to eat it. He finally sat down at his desk, looked at the PEOPLE and the MATH converging, and decided that the lives of over 1 million Floridians would benefit from Obamacare’s Medicaid provision. Make no mistake, this is a humongous win for President Obama and the Democrats, but more importantly, it’s a win for the life and health of the citizens of Florida. If the state legislature follows Governor Scott’s lead, lives will be saved in Florida. People will get care in Florida.

Now on to the true point of this article… when is Texas Governor Rick Perry going to see the ligtht as well? For all that Florida stands to benefit fom Medicaid expansion, Texans are in an even greater need.

Here are some sobering facts from the Texas Medical Association…

–1 in 4 Texans are uninsured. That’s over over 6.2 million people as of 2010, and more uninsured than any other state.

-These uninsured people have no but choice to seek the emergency room. As a result they drive up Healthcare costs for everyone else. The average cost to treat a minor ailment in the Doctors office? $56.21. In the emergency room? $193.92. That’s almost 4 times the expense as it would be going to the doctor for a similar ailment (much less waiting until it becomes WORSE). Guess who absorbs those costs? And Texans wonder why our healthcare costs are soaring.

–Only 50% of working Texans have health insurance… 49th in the country. The common misconception here is that employers are supposed to offer some form of a health insurance plan. That wasn’t actually a law until the passage of the Affordable Care Act. As a right-to-work state with a plethora of low-wage jobs, Texas companies have very little incentive to offer health insurance. So contrary to popular belief, it’s not just those on welfare in Texas that are struggling to find health care. It’s many of the employed public too.

Let’s get personal for a second. The “bleeding-heart Liberal” in me wants to thank Rick Scott for his moment of clarity and sincerity, and celebrate this win for Florida, Democrats and affordable Health Care. But this is NOT the time to become complacent. The moment is now to put pressure on Governor Perry to do the math for our state. Even as he touts the “smoke and mirrors” budget surplus, Texas families are being devastated by employers that refuse to even offer health insurance (and are trying to sue their way out of it now that it’s mandated by Obamacare), and are continuing to lose sleep over that nagging health issue that they simply can’t afford to deal with this month… or the next… or the next… until it’s too late and becomes a life-or-death issue. We know that Medicaid isn’t perfect, but it’s a VAST improvement from “CrisisCaid”- the spiral so many Texans face where the emergency room is their only option. This is the moment for Texas Democrats to put pressure on the Governor. With now 7 GOP-led states biting their tongue, Rick Perry will be forced to follow suit. And if even doesn’t, Texas Democrats should carry it all the way to the 2014 ballot box.

So Gov… what’s it gonna be? That clock is still a-tickin’.

Houston Politics

Texas Health Scare: What’s our alternative?

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Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (you know… Obamacare), states are slowly coming to the inevitable conclusion. It is the LAW. The clock is now ticking for states like Texas to begin implementation of these new provisions of health care.

But don’t be fooled, that particular clock was ticking in Texas a long time ago. As evidenced in a previous post, Obamacare or not, state healthcare costs have been on a meteoric rise between 2005 and 2009, skyrocketing 36% during just those 4 years. Even as the costs for the state continue to mount, the number of Texans without insurance continues to rise as well.

Here are some sobering facts from the Texas Medical Association…

–1 in 4 Texans are uninsured. That’s over over 6.2 million people as of 2010.

-These uninsured people have no but choice to seek the emergency room. As a result they drive up Healthcare costs for everyone else. The average cost to treat a minor ailment in the Doctors office? $56.21. In the emergency room? $193.92 That’s almost 4 times the expense as it would be going to the doctor for a similar ailment (much less waiting until it becomes WORSE). Guess who absorbs those costs? And Texans wonder why our healthcare costs are soaring.

–Only 50% of working Texans have health insurance… 49th in the country. The common misconception here is that employers are supposed to offer some form of a health insurance plan. That wasn’t actually a law until the passage of the Affordable Care Act. As a right-to-work state with a plethora of low-wage jobs, Texas companies have very little incentive to offer health insurance. So contrary to popular belief, it’s not just those on welfare in Texas that are struggling to find health care. It’s many of the employed public too.

In the face of these staggerring statistics, Governor Perry, Attorney General Greg Abbott and the Republican-led Texas legislature have vowed to fight the Affordable Care Act tooth and nail. It’s quite an odd stance too, as many Texas Hospitals are in full support of the Medicaid Expansion. Here is a statement from Dan Stults, President of the Texas Hospital Association…

“Texas hospitals recognize there are concerns with expanding the Medicaid population, but given the state’s high number of uninsured, all options for gaining insurance coverage must be closely considered. Under PPACA, a significant number of low income individuals could gain insurance without any cost to the state of Texas for several years. Without the Medicaid expansion, many will remain uninsured, shifting costs to the insured and increasing uncompensated care to health care providers,” said Dan Stultz, M.D., FACP, FACHE, THA president/chief executive officer.

“The law was never meant to fix all the problems facing the health care system,” Stultz said. “Texas hospitals look forward to a continued discussion on how to improve the effects of the law for patients, families and communities.”

So Texas hospitals are all for the expansion of Medicaid, the state funding gap for healthcare is increasing at an alarming rate, and our uninsured continue to tax our emergency rooms, and pass ever-ballooning costs to us Texans that are lucky enough to actually have insurance. But Perry and the boys don’t want any government help from “Obamacare”.

Only one question remains to the Governor. What is your alternative?? You continue to reject implementation of the new law, but how would you propose that Texas solve these problems? Are our good Texas companies going to have a change of heart and start insuring all of their workers? Maybe they’ll be nice enough to donate directly to the hospitals so the uninsured can get treated at the ER “for free”? Maybe all of our aging Baby-Boomers will get fed-up and move to Florida??

All Texans should be asking Governor Perry and state lawmakers these questions. If our state really does decide to opt-out we need a real plan in place, and it needs to get implemented now. Mr. Perry… Time’s up.