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The Business of Health Care Report
Today, I want to give you a
preview of shows for 2004, as I begin my fourth year in this excellent collaboration
with KRLD. We began with the intent of
helping consumers and business leaders understand the ever-changing and complex
health care industry, which ranks in the top three industries that spin the economic
wheel of North Texas. Health care always seems to boil
with issues. The present is no exception, with Texas ranking as the state with the most
uninsured; with the Texas Legislature reducing Medicaid health care payments and narrowing
the ranks of those eligible; and with higher unemployment, which consistently drives more
citizens into the ranks of the uninsured. Texas Health Resources alone will provide $50
million more in charity care in 2003 than in 2002. Congress has discussed Medicare
reform and prescription drugs. But, as Hillary Clinton found years ago, trying to truly
reform health care is a buzz saw. But we must do it! The United States has no national
health policy, nor have we really begun to talk about it in earnest. So, during the first
few months of 2004, I'll be taking you through a sequence of commentaries about what's
wrong with today's U.S. health system and why we must agree to principles around which
Congress can consider the future of health care. I encourage you to join me in this
discussion. Log on to TexasHealth.org, click on Newsroom and find the American Hospital
Association white paper on a national health care policy. It's a starting point for
dialogue, and instructions are there on how you can provide input. Texas Health Resources
is making a concerted effort to hear from a broad range of stakeholders to feed back to
the hospital associations and Congress. Your views would be welcome. 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.
©
2003 Texas Health Resources |
I'm Doug Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources, with
"The Business of Health Care Report" on 