“Contrary to the rightwing noise-boxes that manage to get themselves on television and radio in Texas, Texans overwhelmingly favor legislation which would include a public option.

The Senate’s bill contains provisions which will allow states to “opt out” of the public option. What this means for Texas largely depends upon who the governor is and the make up of the Texas Legislature after the plan passes. If we have Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison, or any of my other opponents, it will be nothing more than remaining at the status quo for us.

I favor the public option. Due to monopolies in many states and other non-competitive practices, there is no other realistic way to force the insurance companies to actually increase efficiency. There is no other way to make sure that everyone has access to affordable coverage which must be a key in any plan to unburden local and state governments from having to pay for indigent care.”

FACT SHEET
Texas Can’t Wait For Healthcare Reform

(This information is taken from the U.S. DHS’s website HealthReform.gov.

• The status quo is not an option. The number of uninsured in Texas has increased from 4.9 million in 2001 to 6.1 million in 2008. The percent of non-elderly adults without insurance increased from 27.8% to 32.1%. And this number only considers people who are uninsured for an entire year – it does not include people in Texas who have more recently lost coverage through the recession, or who had shorter gaps in their coverage.

• Private coverage is eroding under the status quo. The percentage of people with employer-based coverage decreased from 63.3% of the population in 2001 to 55.6% in 2008.

• More workers are being left without protection from health care costs. Too many workers in Texas do not have health coverage, at 3.4 million in 2008. And the proportion of workers from Texas without insurance has increased, from 25.6% in 2001 to 29.7% in 2008.

• The problem of the uninsured is a problem that crosses income brackets. The new Census numbers also drive home the fact that everyone in Texas is vulnerable to losing health insurance. An additional 361,000 people from high-income households are now uninsured.

The Health Care Status Quo: Why Texas Needs Health Reform

Congress and the President are working to enact health care reform legislation that protects what works about health care and fixes what is broken. Texans know that inaction is not an option. Sky-rocketing health care costs are hurting families, forcing businesses to cut or drop health benefits, and straining state budgets. Millions are paying more for less. Families and businesses in Texas deserve better.

TEXANS CAN’T AFFORD THE STATUS QUO

• Roughly 12 million people in Texas get health insurance on the job1, where family premiums average $13,525, about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.²
• Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 104 percent in Texas.³
• Household budgets are strained by high costs: 17 percent of middle-income Texas families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care. ⁴
• High costs block access to care: 20 percent of people in Texas report not visiting a doctor due to high costs. ⁵
• Texas businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $1,800 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured. ⁶

AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE IS INCREASINGLY OUT OF REACH IN TEXAS

• 25 percent of people in Texas are uninsured, and 75 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker. ⁷
• The percent of Texans with employer coverage is declining: from 57 to 50 percent between 2000 and 2007. ⁸
• Much of the decline is among workers in small businesses. While small businesses make up 70 percent of Texas businesses,9 only 32 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2006 — down 5 percent since 2000. ⁹
• Choice of health insurance is limited in Texas. HCSC (Blue Cross Blue Shield ) alone constitutes 39 percent of the health insurance market share in Texas, with the top two insurance providers accounting for 59 percent. ¹⁰
• Choice is even more limited for people with pre-existing conditions. In Texas, premiums can vary based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can exclude pre-existing conditions or even be denied completely.

TEXANS NEED HIGHER QUALITY, GREATER VALUE, AND MORE PREVENTATIVE CARE

• The overall quality of care in Texas is rated as “Weak.” ¹²

• Preventative measures that could keep Texans healthier and out of the hospital are deficient, leading to problems across the age spectrum:
  • 20 percent of children in Texas are obese. ¹³
  • 25 percent of women over the age of 50 in Texas have not received a mammogram in the past two years.
  • 44 percent of men over the age of 50 in Texas have never had a colorectal cancer screening.
  • 66 percent of adults over the age of 65 in Texas have received a flu vaccine in the past year. ¹⁴

The need for reform in Texas and across the country is clear. Texas families simply can’t afford the status quo and deserve better. President Obama is committed to working with Congress to pass health reform this year that reduces costs for families, businesses and government; protects people’s choice of doctors, hospitals and health plans; and assures affordable, quality health care for all Americans.

(This information is taken from the U.S. DHS’s website HealthReform.gov.

ENDNOTES:

1. U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. HIA-4 Health Insurance Coverage Status and Type of Coverage by State–All Persons: 1999 to 2007, 2007.
2. Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey – Insurance Component, 2006, Table X.D.Projected 2009 premiums based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “National Health Expenditure Data,” available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/nationalhealthexpenddata/.
3. Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey – Insurance Component, 2000, Table II.D.1.
   Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey – Insurance Component, 2006, Table X.D.
   Projected 2009 premiums based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “National Health Expenditure Data,” available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/nationalhealthexpenddata/.
4. Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2006.
5. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007.
6. Furnas, B., Harbage, P. (2009). “The Cost Shift from the Uninsured.” Center for American Progress.
7. U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. Annual Social and Economic Supplements, March 2007 and 2008.
8. U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. HIA-4 Health Insurance Coverage Status and Type of Coverage by State–All Persons: 1999 to 2007, 2007.
9. Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey – Insurance Component, 2006, Table II.A.1a.
10. Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey – Insurance Component, 2001, 2006, Table II.A.2.
11. 11 Health Care for America Now. (2009). “Premiums Soaring in Consolidated Health Insurance Market.” Health Care for America Now.
12. Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. 2007 State Snapshots. Available http://statesnapshots.ahrq.gov/snaps07/index.jsp.
13. Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health, Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health.
14. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007.

TYLER-Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hank Gilbert said Monday morning that Texas Governor Rick Perry’s continued comments about how great Texas is doing show just how far out of touch the incumbent governor is with reality.

At a Republican gathering Friday in Fort Worth, Perry criticized the federal government and proclaimed that, “Texas is the blueprint America needs to look at to go forward.”

“If America uses the blueprint from Rick Perry’s Texas as a model to move forward, America would quickly become a third-world country,” Gilbert said. “All we’ve seen from the Perry administration is record unemployment, higher tuition costs, toll road disasters that will end up soaking taxpayers, failed privatization experiments that cost hundreds of millions, cover-ups, and worsening conditions for the middle class and poor,” Gilbert continued.

“For this governor to say that our state is doing so well that everyone should follow our lead shows just how out of touch he is,” Gilbert said. “Ask the thousands of Texans with out health insurance or who have lost their jobs if Rick Perry’s model is working for them. It is not,” Gilbert continued. “If his so-called blueprint was for a house, the roof would be on the floor, there would be no walls, and the toilet would be in the dining room,” Gilbert continued. “The only project Rick Perry could serve as the architect for would be a ditch, because that is where his leadership has driven Texas,” he concluded.

Gilbert pointed out that, under Perry’s leadership, Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured citizens of any state, kept 1.4 million children from health insurance, priced college tuition out of reach of thousands of Texans, has seen utility rates skyrocket 64 percent and property taxes which are at an all time high.

FACT SHEET

Rick Perry’s Bad Blueprint For Texas

SKYROCKETING UTILITY COSTS

Under Governor Perry’s leadership, electric rates have skyrocketed 64 percent. (SOURCE: Associated Press)

INCOME, JOB LOSS & POVERTY

Texas ranks 7th in among the states in the percent of our children living in poverty. (SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, R1704. Percent of Children Under 18 Years Below Poverty Level in the Past 12 Months, 2007)

Texas ranks 3d among the state in terms of the percentage of our population living below the Federal Poverty Level. (SOURCE: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)

Texas ranks 3rd among the nation in terms of the percent of our population with food insecurity. (SOURCE: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Household Food Insecurity in the United States, 2006)

Texas ranks third in the nation in terms of the percent of women in our population living in poverty. (SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2006, Table 4b, Reported Voting and Registration of the Voting-Age Population, by Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin, for States: November 2006)

Job Loss in Rick Perry’s administration has been the worst Texas has seen since the 1970s and 1986 and 1987.

(Texas LMCI TRACER Generated graphic, with modifications to highlight Perry’s years as governor)

UNINSURED TEXANS

The number of uninsured Texans has increased from 4.9 million in 2001 to 6.1 million in 2008. The percent of non-elderly adults with out insurance rose from 27.8 percent to 32.1 percent. This number only considers people who are uninsured for an entire year and doesn’t include many Texans who have lost their health coverage as a result of the recession. (SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)

Employer-based health plans in Texas are quickly disappearing. The percentage of employer-based health coverage decreased from 63.3 percent of the state’s population in 2001 to 55.6 percent in 2008. (SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)

3.4 million Texas workers are without health insurance. The percentage of Texas workers without health insurance rose from 25.6 percent in 2001 to 29.7 percent in 2008. (SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services).

Rick Perry’s failures on Children’s Health Insurance has forced over 1.4 million kids to go without health care coverage – over 20%, the highest rate of uninsured children in the nation. (SOURCE: Families USA)

Being uninsured isn’t just a problem for the poor. An additional 361,000 people from homes considered “high-income” households by the census bureau are now uninsured in Texas. (SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

EDUCATION

Although Texas ranks third in the nation in terms of the money spent on public education, the state ranks 45th in the nation in terms of dollars spent per student. (SOURCES: Congressional Quarterly’s State Fact Finder 2007. & ScoreCard.org)

Texas ranks 34th among the states in average teacher salaries. (Congressional Quarterly’s State Fact Finder 2007)

Texas ranks 50th in terms of the percent of the population over 25 with a high school diploma, and 41st in terms of its high school graduation rate. (SOURCE: ScoreCard.org)

THE ENVIRONMENT

Texas is the worst air polluter in the nation.

Texas releases more volatile organic compounds into the air than any other state in the country. (SOURCE: ScoreCard.org)

Texas releases more toxic chemicals into water than any other state in the nation. (SOURCE: ScoreCard.org)

Texas ranks fifth in the nation in terms of toxic chemicals released into the air. (SOURCE: ScoreCard.org)

Texas releases more cancer-causing carcinogens into the air than any other state in the U.S. (SOURCE: ScoreCard.org)

Texas ranks seventh out of the fifty states in terms of the number of cancer-causing carcinogens released into water. (SOURCE: ScoreCard.org)

Texas ranks second among the fifty states in the amount of hazardous waste generated and first in carbon dioxide emissions. (SOURCE: Environmental Protection Agency)

TYLER—Democrat Hank Gilbert’s gubernatorial campaign Thursday afternoon warned Democratic Primary voters to carefully parse phrases used by gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth concerning healthcare reform when considering who to vote for in the March Democratic Primary.

Schieffer, an intimate of former President George W. Bush and Bush’s appointee as Ambassador to Australia and Japan, was quoted in the October 14 Rio Grande Guardian as promoting mandatory health insurance in a format similar to auto liability insurance in Texas and saying, “I look at it like we have mandatory automobile coverage. Everybody has to have it and you have what they call an Assigned Risk Pool and people compete for the business.”

“That Tom Schieffer is likening the national health insurance crisis to mandatory auto liability insurance in Texas is really crazy,” said Gilbert campaign spokesperson Vince Leibowitz. “What he clearly wants is to simply make health insurance ‘mandatory’ and then let insurance companies gouge consumers using credit scores, rating territories, and data mining to drive up their prices. The end result is much the same as what we have now, insurance that few can really afford but that all will be legally required to obtain,” he continued. “Simply saying ‘health insurance is mandatory,’ will not work. It will not drive the costs down. It hasn’t driven down the cost of auto liability insurance and won’t do it for health insurance,” Leibowitz continued.

Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Hank Gilbert said Democrats must work together to ensure that a viable healthcare reform package is passed.

“The health care system is broken and it’s got to be fixed. It’s not a matter of access, it’s a matter of a middle man taking his cut instead of a doctor actually making the money and a patient paying for solid coverage. We have to institute basic reform and bring the costs down by creating a real alternative to the cartel-like system of insurance companies we have today,” Gilbert said.

“Simply requiring folks to have insurance doesn’t do a thing to make the insurance affordable. There needs to be real competition and no more excuses,” Gilbert said. “It’s unfortunate that Tom can’t see what the vast majority of people in this state and nation see, that there is no real competition in the health insurance industry and the insurers are doing everything they can to keep it that way so they can bleed people dry. First they told us tort reform will lower costs and it’s done anything but. Malpractice premiums are still through the roof and patients still pay more.”

Gilbert further criticized Schieffer for making his statements about healthcare in one of the state’s poorest regions.

“For Tom to make this car insurance to health insurance comparison in the Rio Grande Valley is a slap in the face to the hardworking people of this region. It isn’t about access; that’s the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard. Anyone can get ‘access’ to health insurance if they walk down to the closest insurance agent; the problem is that they can’t afford any of their options. Tom doesn’t understand that because he’s probably never had to worry about paying for health insurance a day in his life. The taxpayers picked up that bill while he was in Japan and Australia working to advance President Bush’s agenda as the insurance crisis in the United States spiraled out of control,” Gilbert said. “We’ve waited for 16 years for insurance companies to reform and it hasn’t happened. Now it’s time for action to end the crisis.”

“How anyone can stand miles from the poorest communities in our state and colonias without running water in a region where parents have to decide between putting food on the table and keeping the lights on and make these statements is simply beyond comprehension. It isn’t about access, it is about affordability. People cannot afford health insurance, period. What Tom’s advocating won’t do anything to make it more affordable, it’ll just massively increase the profits of health insurance companies leaving ordinary people and health care providers squeezed in the middle,” Gilbert continued.

• Employer-based health plans in Texas are quickly disappearing. The percentage of employer-based health coverage decreased from 63.3 percent of the state’s population in 2001 to 55.6 percent in 2008. (SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)

• 3.4 million Texas workers are without health insurance. The percentage of Texas workers without health insurance rose from 25.6 percent in 2001 to 29.7 percent in 2008. (SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services).

• Being uninsured isn’t just a problem for the poor. An additional 361,000 people from homes considered “high-income” households by the census bureau are now uninsured in Texas. (SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

• The current Texas Insurance Commissioner, Mike Geeslin, (a former staffer for Governor Perry), is such a pro-insurance lapdog that a leading insurance industry trade group publicly applauded his reappointment in 2005. (SOURCE: Insurance Journal, June 7, 2005; LINK).

“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).