Statement Of Hank Gilbert Following The President’s Healthcare Address

TYLER—Hank Gilbert (D-Whitehouse), a candidate for Texas Governor, issued the following statement at the conclusion of the President’s healthcare address tonight:

“Texas has a higher percentage of its citizens living without health insurance than any other state in the nation.  Instead of working constructively to do something about this problem, Governor Perry and Senator Hutchison behave like children on a school playground—each one peevishly blaming the other for our state’s problems. Or Washington. Or the 10^th Amendment. Basically, doing anything BUT acknowledging their own failure and disregard for their fellow Texans.

One thing you also haven’t heard them say is how they’ll solve the health insurance crisis in Texas. Whether or not the President’s national healthcare plan becomes a reality, we have to do something about health insurance in Texas. We lead the nation in the number of uninsured children. We rank 46^th out of the 50 states when it comes to the number of people covered by employer-funded healthcare plans.

That’s inexcusable. During the 24 years Rick Perry has held public office, and during the 18 years Kay Bailey Hutchison has held statewide office, neither has demonstrated the courage Texas needs to pull our state up by the bootstraps from the health insurance sinkhole. These two have more than four decades of government experience between them, and this is the best we get? Allowing health insurance lobbyists to control the agenda in their offices? Campaign coffers filled with money from health insurance interests?

I applaud the folks in Washington who are trying to do something to ease healthcare costs in an effort to help small businesses and ordinary Texans who have been abused for decades by greedy insurance companies. Insurance companies need aggressive competition and fair but strict regulation so consumers are protected and prices don’t skyrocket out of reach of ordinary Texans. Here in Texas, the first step toward making sure that happens is reforming the Texas Department of Insurance. As your governor, I will transform this agency, in cooperation with the Legislature, to make the Texas Insurance Commissioner an elected office held accountable to the voters, and not the governor.”

Health Insurance In Texas: A State Of Crisis

The following are facts related to Texas’ health insurance crisis for your use. All sources are cited.

Pay To Play. Texas Governor Rick Perry has received more than $1.2 million dollars from the insurance industry for his campaign war chest. (National Institute On Money In State Politics. LINK.) While Perry has been governor, he has done nothing to increase access to healthcare for ordinary Texans, and his “leadership” on tort reform and insurance “reform” have translated into no healthcare savings or better access to care for ordinary Texans. (Texas Observer. “Baby, I Lied.” LINK.) U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has taken more than half a million dollars from the insurance industry for her Senate campaigns (Center for Responsive Politics, LINK)

Want Medical Care? Got Money? Under Governor Perry’s watch in Austin and during Senator Hutchison’s time in Washington, six Texas cities have earned the dubious distinction of being among the 20 most expensive cities in the United States for medical care: Houston (20), Lubbock (18), Dallas (13), Corpus Christi (10), Harlingen (5), and McAllen (2). Healthcare is more expensive in Harlingen than it is in Los Angeles. (Forbes, “America’s Most Expensive Places For Healthcare.” LINK.)

First Equals Last. Texas ranks first in the nation in the percentage of uninsured children. (Kaiser Family Foundation. LINK.) Texas ranks first in the nation when it comes to the percentage of the state’s population without insurance (ibid, LINK), and in the percentage of the non-elderly who are uninsured. (ibid, LINK.) Texas ranks 46th in the nation in terms of the population with employer-based healthcare insurance. (ibid, LINK.)

Bad Votes. Senator Hutchison vote against requiring wealthy Medicare beneficiaries to pay a greater share of their Medicare Part D premiums. A couple making over $164,000 per year would have been expected to pay a little over $10 per month more than they paid before. (Bill S.Amdt.4240 to S.Con.Res.70 ; vote number 08-S063 on Mar 13, 2008.) Senator Hutchison also voted against requiring negotiated prices on Medicare Part D drugs. (S.3 & H.R.4 ; vote number 2007-132 on Apr 18, 2007.) She also voted against negotiating bulk purchases for Medicare prescription drugs. (S.Amdt. 214 to S.Con.Res. 18 ; vote number 2005-60 on Mar 17, 2005).