With Texas reporting 332,434 cases of COVID-19 as of July 21st, Texans have found themselves in the middle of a global pandemic. The virus has reached every corner of the state and Corpus Christi in Nueces County is no exception. Since Texas reopened for business, the area finds itself a hotspot for new cases. By that same July 21st date, the county had 8,579 positive cases and local officials were begging tourists to stay home.
Texas is in the middle of a pandemic, caused by factors well outside our control, but we are also in a health crisis years in the making.
Texas families know healthcare is too expensive to pay for without health insurance, and we are all now learning the risks of what can happen when too many people don’t have access to healthcare.
According to the Texas Medical Association, five million Texans have no health insurance, which is more than the entire population of neighboring Louisiana.
Shouldn’t our legislators be making it easier for Texans to get healthcare, not harder?
A succession of Texas governors and legislators have campaigned against expanding Medicaid and continue to play politics with public health. State Representative Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi) is one of them.
One way legislators could ensure low-income Texans have healthcare is by accepting Medicaid expansion funds. There are billions of federal dollars just waiting for Texas to accept. An estimated 1.1 million low-income Texans could become eligible under a Medicaid expansion yet the Legislature refuses to take advantage.
When polled, almost all Texans agree – the Legislature should expand Medicaid and work to make healthcare more affordable. But Austin politicians do not agree.
Despite this broad public support, Hunter and other Texas legislators have opposed Medicaid expansion for years, making the health of Texans pawns in a political game against the federal government. Hunter has proven he is no friend to the uninsured by voting against Medicaid expansion repeatedly.
During the 2013 legislative session, Hunter was absent for an amendment vote on SB 7, a Medicaid services reform bill, which would ban Texas from expanding Medicaid without the approval of the Legislature. But to make sure that there was a record of his intent, he filed a statement of his intent to vote no on the amendment. In the 2017 state budget, he voted to table an amendment that would require Texas to request a waiver to draw down federal dollars for expanding Medicaid.
And just last session, Hunter voted against expanding Medicaid coverage for Texas mothers from two months post delivery to 12 months. The bill, HB 744 passed the House but failed to receive a hearing in the Senate. It was also the number one policy recommendation by the state’s own maternal mortality task force to improve healthcare outcomes for Texas mothers, and to prevent more maternal deaths. He also voted against an amendment to the budget to expand Medicaid.
When Texas turns down Medicaid funding, they bet against rural hospitals. According to the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, 26 rural hospitals in 22 communities have closed in Texas since 2010. These closures, which could have been avoided with expanded Medicaid funding, have made it far more difficult for families to access quality healthcare or emergency room services. While Nueces and surrounding counties have avoided the closures so far, no one knows what the future holds. And with COVID-19 cases on the rise in the area, it’s more important than ever to have solvent hospitals to meet the demands of the community. Texas hospital closures – which could have been avoided through Medicaid expansion – have put families at risk, by making it more difficult to access quality healthcare and emergency room services.
The coronavirus is exposing what many patient and healthcare advocates already knew – our healthcare infrastructure is fragile, and years of partisanship and underfunding have placed the health of Texans at risk.
Texas needs the Legislature to do the right thing. By refusing to expand Medicaid, Todd Hunter and other lawmakers have limited access to coverage and care Texans need more than ever. It’s time for the Legislature to stop playing politics and to protect the health of working Texas families.
