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Texas Tops Nation with 28.8 Percent Uninsured


Health care clinics are in high demand these days. They've become the primary care provider to a skyrocketing number of Texans who have no health insurance. While across the nation an average of just under 17 percent of adults don't have health insurance, here in Texas that percentage is a record 28.8 percent. And they're not just poor people. 

They're people working full time at jobs that simply don't offer health benefits. Jesus Garza, President and Interim CEO at Seton Healthcare Family says, "What's happening is many of them are start-up businesses. Many of them are contract workers so that you work for contract at different places. And all of those things don't come with insurance benefits."

Without health insurance, patients let little problems fester until they become too big for the health clinics to handle and an expensive hospital stay becomes necessary. Seton alone finds itself providing nearly $350 million in services a year to patients who have no insurance.

So they're part of the solution, joining the clinics who are working to nip little problems in the bud. Leslee Froehlich, Interim CEO at CommUnityCare says, "We want to grow to meet that need so that everybody has a primary care home so that they can get preventive care before they wind up in an emergency medical situation which is much more costly to the system as a whole."

The health care systems are taking care of the patients, but it's up to lawmakers to make sure the health care system stays healthy.

By Fred Cantu