Last week as I debuted my safety-net clinic feature story, I cited a study in Dallas, Texas comparing two geographical areas and how the safety-net clinic there is decreasing costs, stays in the hospital, and numbers of visits.
What I did not say, but have found out since, is that there is an aggressive legislative agenda in the Texas Legislature to move more of the state's uninsured into some kind of health coverage. Read more here.
One positive result is that 3100 new healthcare jobs were created in the workforce in Texas last month alone. Read more in the Star-Telegram. While the article doesn't attribute the legislation with creating the jobs, there are many lawmakers and policy leaders who are obviously working hard to bring effective solutions to the table. This is in contrast to some states who have put a lot of the "eggs" in the SCHIP basket, and now find themselves in a crisis.
Yes, this is a plug for states-rights and limited government (federal) and a reminder that local governments are most effective at serving the needs of their people. States are required to balance their budgets, but the Federal Government is not. Finding "state" solutions within current state budgets is good for the state, and good for the country.
I write this blog from Washington DC, having ridden the metro with thousands of federal employees over the last few days. The Federal Government is huge and costly and bureaucratic--and those or look to it to be their mother or nanny best realize that this task is best left to states.
My cowboy hat is off to the great state of Texas for their innovative health care solutions.
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3 comments:
Regardless of if it comes from the state or federal government, all people need access to equitable healthcare. Don't you think?
Federalism is a great concept but it may not be the best approach to health care. States don't spend equally on schools or even highway repair, meaning that two people born on either side of a state line may have disparate reading skills -- and different budgets for wheel alignments.
Should accidents of birth determine quality of health care?
And how would a state-based system deal with electronic medical records, which many see as crucial for making care safer and more consistent for folks of all ages? Without a federal standard, we may develop a Babel of commercial systems that can't talk to one another.
I like the Biblical reference.
Federal standards are one thing for records, etc., but federal funding is another.
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