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Showing posts from November, 2013

A Sad State of Affairs in the Texas "Safety Net"

Being poor or uninsured in Texas means you get left behind to die...not that it should surprise anyone...a well-written article by a Texas doctor who is in the trenches daily trying to heal people with no support from our great state. But  UTMB is no longer the state-subsidized charity hospital  it used to be. The changes began before Hurricane Ike in 2008. But after the storm, UTMB administrators drastically  cut charity care  and moved clinics to the mainland, where there are more paying patients. The old motto “Here for the Health of Texas” was replaced by “Working together to work wonders.” Among those wonders are a new surgical tower and a plan to capitalize on Galveston’s semi-tropical charm by attracting wealthy  healthcare tourists  from abroad. Medical care for the poor is not, apparently, among the wonders. Whereas UTMB accepted 77 percent of charity referrals in 2005, it was only taking 9 percent in 2011. UTMB ascribes these changes  to financial strain from Hurricane