Texas Health Resources - The Business of Healthcare

The Business of Health Care Report
Red Alert for Medicaid - April 2003

Click to listen to this taped broadcast.

I'm Doug Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources, with "The Business of Health Care Report" on News Radio 1080 KRLD.

Today, I'll discuss two critical state-funded health programs - Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Early this month, the Texas Legislature is scheduled to consider a 33 percent cut to these programs. In the Metroplex alone, that would mean $175 million less for low income and indigent health care services. One proposal would eliminate the children's health insurance program entirely. CHIP, as the program is known, provides health insurance for more than 500,000 Texas children.

Cuts in state Medicaid funding would be particularly painful since for every dollar that Texas spends on Medicaid, it receives $1.50 in federal matching funds.

Medicaid already pays doctors and hospitals less than their costs to treat Medicaid patients. Additional cuts will likely result in more doctors refusing to accept new Medicaid patients. Already, more than half of Texas physicians refuse to take new Medicaid patients.

And that's where hospitals - along with taxpayers and businesses - may be left holding the bag.

Since sick people will still need care - with or without Medicaid or CHIP - already overcrowded emergency rooms will become even more congested. Patients cannot be turned away, even if they can't pay, because hospitals are required by law to provide treatment.

The economic burden then shifts to the local level as hospitals struggle to stay financially viable while providing larger and larger amounts of charity care. Last year alone, Texas Health Resources hospitals provided $117 million in free care to those who could not afford it.

Everyone recognizes the state constitutional mandate to produce a balanced budget. But, lawmakers must realize that when the state's health is at stake, especially for its most vulnerable citizens - its children and its needy - fiscal responsibility must be guided by moral responsibility.

For Texas Health Resources and its family of hospitals - Harris Methodist Hospitals, Presbyterian Healthcare System and Arlington Memorial Hospital - I'm CEO Doug Hawthorne with "The Business of Health Care Report" on NewsRadio 1080 KRLD.

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