Coalition's Report Boosts Legislative Strategy

Texas has more uninsured residents than any other state in the nation. Of its 254 counties, 64 have no hospital, 27 have no physicians, 16 have only one physician and 177 qualify as federally designated medically underserved areas. To meet future demand for health care, the state must increase its physician workforce by 20 percent each year and its medical residency positions by 600 every two years for the next 10 years, according to a new report by the Texas Primary Care Coalition.

When voters go to the polls next month and when Texas legislators face these and other health care issues next year, the state's family physicians, pediatricians and general internists will be ready. As members of the Texas Primary Care Coalition, they will capitalize on the strength of their combined numbers and on data in the coalition's report, "Fractured: The State of Health Care in Texas." (PDF file: 16 pages / 1.8 MB. More about PDFs.)

The report is part of the Texas Primary Care Coalition's concerted legislative and public education effort to increase awareness of the health care crisis facing Texans, according to Tom Banning, Texas AFP director of legislative and public affairs.

As they visit with state lawmakers and news media, members of the Texas Primary Care Coalition -- composed of the Texas AFP, the Texas Pediatric Society and the Texas Academy of Internal Medicine -- will distribute the data-packed report, which describes conditions contributing to the state's health care dilemma.

The report will undergird Texas physicians' advocacy strategy in the upcoming legislative session. It calls on Texas lawmakers to implement policies that would

The new report builds on the primary care coalition's successful use of a previous coalition report, "Fading Away -- Access to Primary Care: Flirting with Disaster," (PDF file: 15 pages / 453 KB. More about PDFs.) which focused on medical liability reform in the state. That 2002 report, coupled with the legislative and public education campaign that followed, was instrumental in helping pass comprehensive medical liability reform and closing loopholes in the state's prompt-pay statutes, said Banning.

"Building on that framework, we decided to look at the state of health care in Texas today," he said. "Rather than have family medicine work alone, we recognized that pediatricians and general internists have so much in common on all these issues. We're the core foundation of health care in Texas, so this was a good opportunity to come together to provide some solutions."

With the report in hand, the Texas AFP and its coalition colleagues have launched a statewide public awareness campaign explaining to the public and lawmakers why health care coverage has dwindled or disappeared, why many communities have too few or no health care professionals or facilities, and why health insurance premiums and associated costs continue to rise.

"One in every four Texans has no health insurance. When they get sick and go to the emergency room for care, businesses, homeowners, individuals and local communities will pay those bills through higher taxes," said Texas AFP President Douglas Curran, M.D., of Athens in a news release announcing the report's publication. "It is a vicious cycle that shifts the cost of providing uncompensated care to private health insurance, which in turn drives soaring health insurance premiums and leads to a lack of available, affordable health insurance options for employers and individuals alike."

The coalition's legislative strategy includes a primary health care day at the statehouse and ongoing presentation of joint testimony and speakers on behalf of all coalition members.

Coalition members will distribute the report to "every legislator, every candidate and the news media to drive health care into this election cycle," said Banning. "We want this to be where people are debating health care at a public level. We want to drive this into the consciousness of the electorate."