Harris County Will Benefit from Health Care Reform

The Texas congressional district with the highest insured population ranks 239th of 435 in the country. The highest ranking congressional district in Harris County ranks 244th of 435. Congressional districts in Houston have more residents without health insurance than any other metropolitan region in the country. Harris County alone has 1.3 million uninsured residents.

As the state with the largest uninsured population, we have the most to gain from federal health reform legislation. Individuals with health insurance will benefit from reform as well, since rising health care premiums are crushing family budgets. Texas families need access to quality, affordable health care now.

For your information, below I've included:

• An article from Saturday's Houston Chronicle that details Houston area congressional districts' health insurance standings as compared with the rest of the country,
• An article from Saturday's Houston Chronicle about a roundtable discussion in which I urge leaders of the Texas Medical Center to support health care reform.

To see a more detailed explanation from the U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee of how federal health reform legislation will benefit Harris County congressional districts, please click on the below links:

• John Culberson (TX-7)
• Kevin Brady (TX-8)
• Al Green (TX-9)
• Michael McCaul (TX-10)
• Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18)
• Pete Olson (TX-22)
• Gene Green (TX-29)

I will keep you updated on this important policy matter as it continues to develop.

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City, state lag nation in health insurance
Houston congressional districts among worst 10 in U.S.

By RICHARD S. DUNHAM
WASHINGTON BUREAU

Aug. 29, 2009, 7:48AM

WASHINGTON — The Houston congressional delegation holds an ignominious honor: More of its districts have more people without health insurance than any other metropolitan area in the country.

Texas, which has the nation's highest rate of uninsured, has four districts among the worst 10 in the country for constituents who lack coverage, including those represented by Houston Democrats Gene Green and Sheila Jackson Lee.
Thirteen of Texas' districts — including the four in the Houston area — are in the bottom 30.

"It's not something that I'm proud of," said Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, whose district ranks 28th from the bottom.

Not a single Texas congressional district, even the state's wealthiest, ranks in the nation's top half. The ratings are based on a Houston Chronicle analysis of Gallup Poll data compiled by National Journal.

Eight of the 10 Texas districts with the highest uninsured rates are dominated by minority residents. The two majority-white districts in the bottom 10 list are in East Texas.

About 6 million Texans are uninsured, including one in five children. Harris County has more uninsured residents than any other Texas county — 1.3 million people — and Rep. Al Green says 500,000 more are underinsured.

The uninsured data include illegal immigrants, which skews the results in some Texas districts. But it doesn't fully explain the Lone Star State's uniformly low standing. Indeed, the state's wealthiest districts, including some with very few undocumented residents, rank far behind comparable districts in other states.

Jackson Lee, whose constituency is about 40 percent African-American and 36 percent Hispanic, calls the disparities in health coverage between wealthy Texans and poor minorities "a link for disaster and call for serious attention."

Helping the hospitals

The state's high uninsured population has become an issue as Congress considers comprehensive health-care reform. Gene Green says local lawmakers are working with the Texas Medical Center and its member institutions to ensure that area hospitals are reimbursed for serving uninsured Texans under any overhauled health-care system.

"I don't want whatever new system we have to hurt the (hospitals)," he said. "I want them to get paid."

Among Texas' 32 congressional districts, eight of the 10 with the highest uninsured rates are represented by Democrats. At the bottom of the list — for Texas and the nation — is Ruben Hinojosa's Rio Grande Valley district, where 46.4 percent of residents have no health-care coverage.

Gene Green's majority-Latino Houston district, with its 36.4 percent uninsured rate, is second worst in Texas and fifth worst in the country. Jackson Lee's central Houston district has a 29.7 percent uninsured rate, sixth worst in Texas and 19th worst in the U.S. The fourth Houston-area lawmaker in the bottom 30 is Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands.
"Without reform," argues Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, "the problem will only get worse."

‘Greatest health-care ...'

The 10 districts with the most insured residents — three in the Houston area — have Republican members of Congress. All of those suburban lawmakers oppose President Barack Obama's health-reform initiative.

The Texas district with the highest coverage levels is represented by a doctor, Michael Burgess of Lewisville. But Burgess' Dallas-area district ranks only 239th of the nation's 435 House districts. Houston's best-insured district is John Culberson's westside district.

It ranks 244th of 435 in the country.

Culberson calls American medical care "the greatest health-care system that the world has ever known."

To increase the number of insured Texans, Culberson would permit citizens to buy health insurance across state lines, allow small businesses to band together to purchase health insurance without federal restrictions and to expand the use of Health Savings Accounts. He warns that Democratic health-reform proposals will result in "the obliteration of the private sector."

richard.dunham@chron.com

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Lawmaker urges Med Center to back health overhaul

By Todd Ackerman

Aug. 28, 2009, 9:05PM

State Rep. Garnet Coleman called for Texas Medical Center leaders to support health-care reform efforts Friday, arguing that Congress needs to "get it done, not slow it down" and dismissing town hall opposition as orchestrated.

The Houston Democrat's appeal was a response to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's July 27 news conference, where many medical center leaders urged Congress not to rush efforts to fix America's troubled health-care system. Coleman criticized the event at the time as an attempt to kill the effort.

"The time of leaving people without health insurance has gone on too long," said Coleman, a member of President Barack Obama's 32-person State Legislators for Health Reform. "Your being against the legislation is not going to kill it. People want change."

Coleman characterized as "planned and rolled out" the town hall meetings where opponents have fulminated against the House bill, pointing to Republican consultant Frank Luntz's "10 rules for stopping the Washington takeover of health care."

"This is not a spontaneous uprising," Coleman said, adding that the strategy was designed to affect polling, currently on a downward trajectory.

A lower profile

Coleman's news conference drew a lower profile group than Hutchison's event, which included many of the medical center's biggest names. There were only two big names at Coleman's event — University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center President Dr. John Mendelsohn and Harris County Hospital District President and Chief Executive Officer David Lopez.

Lopez was one of the most vocal advocates of slowing down the process — in July he said "the devil is in the details" and expressed concern to Hutchison that the House bill could have a negative effect on the district — but he said Friday he has now had a chance to study the bill and supports it.

Lopez was the only official to attend both news conferences. The other attendees Friday included representatives from Texas Children's Hospital, Shriners Hospital for Children, The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, Prairie View A&M's College of Nursing and the Texas Medical Center, the corporation that manages the medical center.

At one point, Coleman asked how many had read the House bill, which is more than 1,000 pages long. Only a few raised a hand.

Coleman told those in attendance that the bill will be fine-tuned, noting that in his 18 years as a state legislator he's never seen a bill passed that was the same as originally written.

Coleman said the State Legislators for Health Reform, created in May, regularly brings back input to Obama about what people like and dislike about reform legislation.

todd.ackerman@chron.com