Texas Health Insurance
Texas’s health status
Texas’ health status in the past year was not as good as it was expected to be: After being ranked as the 37th healthiest state in 2007 in America’s Health Rankings, a list compiled by the United Health Foundation, Texas fell nine spots this year and is now the fifth least healthy state in the country, at the 46th position. This means that basically overall health within the state has declined drastically over the past year. Key factors that helped in the fall are the great increase in the percentage of children in poverty (up 3% in the past year alone, now 25% of the children in the state live in poverty, one in four kids), which is now the second highest in the nation, and the increase in the prevalence of smoking within the state (which increased in the past year from 17.9% to 19.3% of the population.
One of Texas biggest issues is the extremely high percentage of residents lacking Health Insurance. 25% of Texans do not have health insurance coverage, which basically means that 1 in 4 Texans doesn’t have coverage, the worst numbers in the nation. With an extremely low public health funding per capita (only $47 per person, $3 more than last year), a very low rate of ready primary health care (with only 95 primary care physicians per 100,000 Texans), a high number of preventable hospitalizations and high geographic disparity, the state has serious issues when it comes to accessibility, adequacy and efficiency of its health care system. Health in Texas right now is neither accessible not good or adequate most of the time, and these are not good news for Texans.
Other challenges for this state are a high incidence of infectious disease at 23.8 cases per 100,000 population and high percentages of smokers, obese residents, less kids graduating high school within four years (only 74%) and inadequate prenatal care. These issues are also important to the residents of the state, and need to be worked at immediately. Texas ranks lower for health determinants than for health outcomes, indicating that overall healthiness may remain low in future years.
Texas is in dire need of improvement when it comes to health, as its status has been deteriorating within the past couple of years. State officials need to ensure accessibility, adequacy and efficiency of health care and health insurance, so that overall health can be raised again in the state. With hard work, this can be accomplished.
Texas health insurance information
In Texas only 75.1% of the citizens in Texas have Health Insurance coverage, which has the honor of being the lowest percentage in the nation, and one of the state’s biggest challenges. Texas is in dire need of improvement, because the state’s low funding is one of the main causes of almost a quarter of its population lacking basic health care coverage. With 24.9% of residents having no coverage whatsoever, the state is in serious need of a change in policies and plans, to ensure more people can have access to Health Insurance coverage. The percentage of employers offering health insurance to employees is okay, with 50.1% percent of employers offering health Insurance plans, and this percentage has been steadily increasing since 2003. About 77.5% of workers take the Health Insurance plans offered by their employers.
Texas’ extremely low public health funding per capita is not only helping accessibility, but also adequacy and efficiency, which shows by the low rate of primary care physicians for the population, barely 95 physicians per 100,000 population. Texas’s health care system position within the country could do a lot better, because despite it’s not as accessible, efficient and adequate as it is in the rest of the country. The percentage of the Texas population that could get medical care when needed is barely 81.5 %. The patients served by FQHCs as a percent of population under 200% FPL stands at 8.1%.
If coverage has been denied for you, there are still some options you can check:
Best health plans in Texas
The prestigious US News ranks yearly the best Health Plans in the country, polling and evaluating consumer assessment, prevention, and treatment offered by all plans. They gather information and rank the results, nation-wide and state-wide, showing on their results the best plans available for Texas as well. The Rankings reflect results of consumer surveys and success in preventing and treating illness compared with average health plan.
Not only they rank Commercial Plans, they also rank Medicare or Medicaid plans, covering and evaluating as many plans as possible. If you want to browse their list of best-of, please go to the US News Health Plans Search site.
Get involved
If you are concerned about Texas’s health care issues and want to speak out, your safest bet is to contact your federal official, either via phone or fax. Postal Mail is not recommended, since it takes too long, and e-mail might not be seen. Also, make sure you communicate with the right Member of the Senate and/or Congress.
If you want more guidance and tips on how to contact and communicate with your representatives, there are various sites on the internet that can help on how to contact your elected officials.
 |  | |
| Contact the White House PHONE: toll free 1-800-671-7887 (ask for the Comment Line) State officials:
Official Texas health insurance information
| Recent Texas health insurance newsHealth Insurance is always a hot topic for discussion, since it involves the citizens of Texas and their welfare. Here are some of the latest news and updates on the current issues and news related to Health and Health Insurance for Texas: |
Next Step
 |
 |
 |
