State Agenda

Get Texas Covered
Learn more about the uninsured crisis in Texas and what you can do to help.

UPDATE:

Texas hospitals commend state legislators for addressing these issues during the 2009 state legislative session.

Check out THA's 2009 legislative session wrap-up.

The Texas Hospital Association urged state legislators to take action on the following issues important to hospitals in 2009. For more details, view THA's 2009 Legislative Agenda brochure. Also, view THA's bill-tracking grid.

Uninsured/Access to Health Care Coverage

With the Texas Department of Insurance under sunset review in 2009, the Legislature has the opportunity to remove regulatory barriers that contribute to making health insurance coverage unaffordable or inaccessible. This in turn can reduce the number of uninsured Texans through the private market. THA is urging lawmakers to enact health insurance reforms and get more Texans covered. To learn more, visit www.GetTexasCovered.com.

Graduate More Registered Nurses

According to the latest projections from the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies, Texas is short 22,000 registered nurses. Without a major increase in the number of nursing graduates, this gap will widen to 70,000 by 2020. Texas hospitals are part of a broad-based coalition that is requesting an additional $60 million for nursing education to almost double the number of registered nursing graduates by 2013. For more information, visit www.TexasNeedsNurses.org.

Support Quality and Patient Safety Activities

Consumers expect and deserve information to help them evaluate the quality of care they receive in hospitals. The state should invest in the personnel and technology to analyze and make data available to the public in a meaningful, user-friendly format. In addition, the recent proliferation of specialty hospitals and independent emergency care medical facilities has caused confusion among the public regarding expectations about the quality and level of medical care available at such facilities. To protect the public, Texas hospitals support licensure of independent emergency medical care facilities and establishment of a minimum emergency department bed requirement for all general hospitals.

Preserve Liability Reforms

The medical liability reforms passed in 2003 have produced the desired result: More doctors are willing to practice medicine in Texas. To maintain the improved access Texans have to medical services, the Legislature should preserve the 2003 reforms, including the cap on non-economic damages for pain and suffering.

Invest in Health Care for Low-Income Texans

The shortfall in what Texas Medicaid pays hospitals for services compared to their costs has increased from $464 million in 2003 to more than $1.2 billion in 2009. Even with supplemental federal funds that help compensate for high volumes of Medicaid and charity care patients, hospitals' unpaid costs from Medicaid shortfalls and caring for the uninsured have risen from $1.7 billion in 2003 to nearly $2.2 billion in 2009. Additionally, the state has not appropriated all funds accruing to help offset a portion of the cost of uncompensated trauma care. Today's economic turmoil puts more strain on hospitals statewide, and the state should not continue to underfund Medicaid, shifting these costs to local taxpayers and insured patients. The continuing physician shortage in Texas also negatively impacts access to care. Texas needs more graduate medical education (GME) slots to reverse the trend of forcing graduates to leave the state for residency training. Restoration of state appropriations for Medicaid GME also allows Texas to obtain additional federal matching dollars.