We all know that Texas leads the nation in the uninsured rate for health care approaching 28 percent of the population and even higher in some North Texas counties. Approximately 6 million people, including 1.2 million children, have no health care coverage.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Medical Association estimate if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) were fully implemented, the numbers of the 6 million uninsured would break down as follows:

COVERED —————————Percent ——————-Number of People
Medicaid Expansion —————-23—————————-1.4 million
Eligible & Un-Enrolled————–13—————————-800,000
Subsidy Eligible———————–40—————————-2.4 million

NOT COVERED——————–Percent——————–Number of People
No Subsidy—————————-10—————————-600,000
Undocumented———————–14—————————-800,000

According to these numbers, 4.6 million people, or 76 percent of the 6 million uninsured Texans, would receive some form of coverage and those with “No Subsidy” and “Undocumented” would remain uninsured.

Recently, the Alliance for Excellent Education released a report indicating if the national dropout rate for high school was reduced from 7 to 3.5 percent, Texas could save more than $500 million in Medicaid expenditures. The reason was better educated people have higher paying jobs with health coverage. Thus, these graduates would be more likely to be involved in prevention programs creating an estimated savings of $70.1 million from heart related illness, $143.4 million from obesity, $146.7 million from smoking, $109.5 million from alcohol-related diseases and $30.3 million from other preventable diseases.

We all know health care and education represent huge numbers in the state budget and appreciate the challenges facing our state leaders. However, the uninsured trend in Texas must be addressed because the coverage, access and hospital emergency departments being used for primary care is not best for the patient. We want to give the appropriate care in the right setting for optimum patient outcomes.

As the general and special sessions for our legislature wind down in Austin, let’s work collaboratively together in the non-legislative session year to develop meaningful strategies to truly address the uninsured crisis in Texas. We are all in this together and we must cooperatively solve the problem in a nonpartisan and equitable manner.

Six million people are counting on us.