Texas Insurance Shoppers

Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins has announced that a plan to provide health care to thousands of currently uninsured, low-income Texans will not be implemented by this fall, as originally intended.  It now looks like it will take another two or three years to get the program in place, and the design of the plan has gone back to the drawing board. 

There are 2.1 million low-income adults in Texas who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but less than 200% of the federal poverty level.  The proposed program was supposed to provide a measure of care for these people, and to start shifting the focus of care from emergency treatment to preventive care.  Unfortunately, uninsured residents are a lot less likely to seek preventive care and treatment for minor ailments, and tend to end up in crowded emergency rooms only when a situation has become dire.

The plan that was to be implemented later this year has been criticized for not providing enough consumer choice in plan design, and also for providing too little care for the critically ill.  It would have allowed five days of inpatient hospital care per year, which would be plenty for most people but not even close to enough for the seriously ill.  The Texas Hospital Association has been critical of such gaps in coverage, pointing out that for catastrophic illnesses, five days of hospital coverage will barely make a dent, and hospitals will be stuck with the expenses.  But who’s paying for it now?  Hospitals and emergency rooms all across Texas are suffering under the weight of a population in which nearly 28% are uninsured.  Obviously there were some flaws in the proposed health care plan, but wouldn’t it have been better than nothing at all?

No Comments »