Tom Lehman
Jim Westrich wrote:
> Texas is one of the few states that bans the "corporate practice of
> medicine." Consequently they have a lot of public and non-profit
> hospitals (and a lot of HMO's playing fast and loose with their
> "non-profit" status). This makes up a little bit for their stingy
> Medicaid eligibility and mean spirited state health policy. Medicaid
> spending per person in Texas is consistently 20-30% below the national
> averages.
>
> Bush's initial plan when elected governor for Medicaid reform was
> horrible. He proposed eligibility for managed Medicaid at 45% FPL for
> adults (!!!) and 133% FPL for kids. Most of the state would only be
> served by one plan. HCFA said no way (and they have let some other
> mean programs through). A few years later, George W. Bush "led" the
> nation in mean spiritedness when he booted 12,700 disabled (SSI
> eligible) children off Medicaid (although many retained Medicaid
> through poverty eligibility). The legislature gave the disabled kids
> their eligibility back about a year later after some really bad
> publicity. Compassionate conservatism I guess.
>
> Outside of Dallas and Houston the rest of the state is greatly
> underserved by health care professionals. The Texas Department of
> Health has declared 112 entire counties and parts of 22 others health
> professional shortage areas. The poor areas and the colonias are the
> most underserved populations in the United States.
>
> Also, Texas is 43rd in spending for people with developmental
> disabilities and 42nd for community options for people with
> developmental disabilities (source: The State of the States in
> Developmental Disabilities (5th ed.); Braddock, Hemp, Parish, and
> Westrich).
>
>
> Peace,
>
> Jim
>
> At 11:29 AM 3/13/00 , you wrote:
>
>> Do you have the references for these stats?
>>
>> > ----- Original Message -----
>> > From: Tom Lehman
>> >
>> > The state of Texas, under the leadership of Governor George W.
>> > Bush, is
>> > ranked as follows:
>> >
>> > 50th in spending for teachers' salaries
>> > 49th in spending on the environment
>> > 48th in per-capita funding for public health
>> > 47th in delivery of social services
>> > 42nd in child-support collections
>> > 41st in per-capita spending on public education and ...
>> >
>> > 5th in percentage of population living in poverty
>> > 1st in air and water pollution
>> > 1st in percentage of poor working parents without insurance
>> >
>> > 1st in percentage of children without health insurance
>> > 1st in executions (an average of 1 every 2 weeks for Bush's
>> > 5 years as
>> > governor)
>>
>
>
>
>
> "What's breaking into a bank compared with founding a bank?"
>
> --Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). Mac, in *The Threepenny Opera *, act 3,
> sc. 9.
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