Texas Insurance Shoppers

Health care reform and finding a way to insure the uninsured has become a major issue over the last year, and promises to remain in the spotlight for at least the rest of 2008, as every leading presidential candidate has made health care reform at least a part of his or her platform – and for some, it is the main pillar of the platform.  No state has got the problem completely figured out.  But most are at least making headway, allebit slow, tedious headway.  In Texas, there is more work to be done than in any other state.  Nationwide, about 15% of Americans are uninsured.  In Texas, that figure jumps to 24% – the highest in the US.  And in Harris county, where Houston is located, 30% of the residents have no health insurance. 

There are many reasons for the health insurance crisis in Texas.  Small businesses in Texas are less likely to offer health insurance to employees than their counterparts in other states.  Income limits to qualify for Medicaid are much lower in Texas than in other states ($4822/year for a family of three, compared with $10,000 in FL, $18,000 in CA, and $25,000 in NY), leaving plenty of families who earn very little money unable to qualify for state funded health care and equally unable to pay for private health insurance.  $4822/year is $402/month.  Once you pay for housing, food, and gas, you’ve probably already gone into the red.  Health insurance premiums just don’t physically fit into the equation.  Another problem adding to the uninsured mess is that Texas forfeited $900 million in federal aid for the Children’s Health Insurance Program over the last six years because it wouldn’t or couldn’t come up with 28 cents for each 72 cents that the federal government was offering.  The result?  Far more uninsured children per capita in Texas than in other states.  Texas has also had a population growth rate twice the national average since 2000, which has placed even more of a strain on an already ailing health care system.

Because of the sheer volume of uninsured people in Texas, emergency rooms are past the point of overcrowding.  Patients – both insured and uninsured – must often wait hours to be seen, since the uninsured often use emergency rooms as primary care facilities.  And the cost of treating those uninsured patients is passed on to the insured population.  According to a December editorial in the Waco Tribune-Herald, the average family’s health insurance premium is $1551 higher than it would be if there were not an uninsured population whose treatment becomes bad debt for hospitals.  Here’s the scenario – uninsured patients are treated in emergency rooms all across Texas (and indeed, all across the US, but more so in Texas) and the hospital doesn’t receive compensation.  So in order to keep from losing money, the hospital increases fees for everyone – the majority of whom are still paying, insured patients.  And when insurance companies have to pay more for services, they charge more in premiums.  So we’re all paying for the fact that Texas has such a large population of uninsured residents.

No Comments »