Texas Health Care System Driving Medical Professionals Out of the Business

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
by Gardner B.

Remember when Senator John Cornyn suggested that the entire nation should model their health care systems after Texas?  Big John may want to get off his high horse and rethink that idea.

The head of the Texas Medical Association, Dr. Dan Stultz, says that the high number of uninsured Texans is driving doctors here out of business.  Twenty years ago 78% of Texas employers provided health insurance.  Today that number is down to 53%.  As a result, many uninsured Texans must turn to Medicaid or get their healthcare from emergency rooms.  Many doctors now refuse to treat Medicaid patients or patients from an ER because the reimbursement is too low or they won’t get paid at all.

Twenty-six percent of Texans have no health insurance.  The leadership of this state left $900 million in federal health care dollars designated for Texas unclaimed and the money went to other states.  Does that sound like the state’s leadership considers healthcare an important issue?

The lack of commitment towards the education of doctors and nurses is also hurting the health care system.  Stultz said that Texas currently has a nurse shortage of 22,000 nurses yet at the same time turned away 8,000 qualified applicants to nursing schools because there isn’t the capacity at the schools to train all of them.

Texas needs to elect new leadership that makes the healthcare of their citizens a top priority.