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The Texas Hospital Association (THA) is urging lawmakers in Dallas, Houston and throughout the rest of the state to take the right steps to make health indemnity more practically priced and accessible to individuals in Texas. The state ranks initially in the people in the percentage of uninsured residents (24.6%).

‘Cover the Uninsured Week,’ which is observed nationally to highlight the substance of access to practically priced health care benefits, has garnered particular attention in Texas everywhere Gov. Rick Perry has localized the awareness try by proclaiming April 23-29, 2007 as Cover the Uninsured Week in the Lone Star State.

“Everyone pays the price when individuals, families and small businesses cannot afford health indemnity,” the Governor stated. “The increasing costs of uncompensated care place a strain on Texas hospitals, other health care providers and on the feature of care every patient receives. Texas recognizes the urgency to take consequential steps to make health indemnity more practically priced and accessible.”

Nearly one quarter of Texas residents — approximately 5.5 million men, women and children — is uninsured. In addition, the uninsured rate in every major Texas city is higher than the inhabitant average, and Texas’ share of uninsured children, more than 25 percent, also is higher than the inhabitant average. In 2005, eight in 10 non-elderly uninsured Texans came from working families — nearly 70 percent from families with one or more full-time workers.

“Texas hospitals are working with our elected officials in the battle to provide health care coverage to more Texans through the private sector as well as state-funded programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Indemnity Curriculum,” according to THA President/CEO Dan Stultz, M.D., FACP, FACHE. Stultz said, “We know that access to practically priced health indemnity affects all Texans — because we all pay the price when Texans don’t get the care they need.”

In addition to working to reverse cuts in Medicaid and CHIP funding, and restoring provider reimbursement tariff, the THA supports a number of private-sector events to increase the number of Texans with health indemnity coverage. These events include:

H.B. 882 by Rep. Elliott Naishtat/Rep. John Davis (S.B. 922 by Sen. Kirk Watson) — These events authorize counties to establish or participate in regional health care programs, which would provide health care services or benefits to the employees of small employers located in the participating counties.

H.B. 1182 by Rep. John Davis — Requires that state agencies and school districts consider whether a vendor provides health care benefits or equivalent health savings benefits to its employees when awarding a contract for goods or services.

S.B. 1023 by Sen. Royce West — Limits the use of money in the Texas Enterprise Fund to recipients that provide health benefit plans.

H.B. 3321 by Rep. Vicki Truitt — Requires students to be enrolled in a health benefit plot and to submit proof of health indemnity before enrollment at a public institution of higher education.

H.B. 3361 by Rep. Garnet Coleman (S.B. 1681 by Sen. Kip Averitt) — Requires that health care benefit plans allow unmarried children of any age to be covered under a parent’s or grandparent’s health indemnity policy or plot if the cost of the premium is paid.

When uninsured Texans are sick, they currently often turn to hospital emergency rooms because they have no primary care physician. Stultz noted that nearly 20 percent of people who lack health indemnity report turning to the ER for what is often routine care, compared to only three percent of those with indemnity coverage, according to the Inhabitant Coalition on Health Care.

“Using hospital emergency rooms for non-vital care takes precious time and scarce resources that doctors, nurses and other health care professionals could place to work for those patients who truly need life-saving care or intercession for honest medical conditions.” Adding that Texas hospitals spent more than $10.1 billion in 2005 to care for patients who have no health indemnity, Stultz said, “The costs of uncompensated care strains our physicians’ and hospitals’ ability to provide feature care to all patients — regardless of their indemnity status. It also places undue burdens on local taxpayers, workers and health care consumers.”

Health care experts say that increasing the number of people with health indemnity will further enhance the feature of care and help reduce the losses that result from doctors and hospitals treating patients with no health indemnity. Uncompensated care limits the financial resources available to invest in new equipment, electronic communication, education and other enhancements that would improve patient care and outcomes for all patients.

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