Contact: Melissa Segrest , (512) 499-4363 or Kirstin Matthews, Rice University , (713) 348-4784

Date: September 30, 2004

UT System News Release

Joint Study of Texans' Access to Health Care Begins

HOUSTON -- A blue-ribbon 17-member task force has begun a year-long study on Texans' access to health care. The emphasis of the study will be on the impact to the state of those without health insurance and of the under-insured.

The task force, sponsored by 10 academic health institutions in Texas , met at Rice University in Houston on Tuesday (Sept. 28) to begin looking into the magnitude of the problem, the impact of changing demographics in Texas, and potential solutions to the problems. More than one-quarter of Texans do not have health insurance.

Neal Lane, university professor and senior fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute of Public Policy at Rice University, is chairman of the task force. John Stobo, president of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, is vice chairman.

The group, which will include perspectives from health financing experts, insurers, policy specialists, medicine, nursing, public health, hospitals, small and large employers, and consumers, will analyze data and consider recommendations to deal with the growing problem for Texas and the nation.

At the first meeting, Rice President David Leebron urged that compassion be an important consideration of the group in addition to its analyses.

Ambassador Edward Djerejian, founding director of the Baker Institute, outlined the increasing commitment of the institute to health policy studies, particularly in collaboration with other components of the Texas Medical Center.

Wayne Riley, vice president of the Baylor College of Medicine, which joins Texas Tech, Texas A&M, North Texas, and the six University of Texas health centers as sponsors of the study, described several personal experiences with patients who suffered the consequences of no health insurance as a result of lost jobs, low income and undocumented alien status.

Kenneth I. Shine, executive vice chancellor for health affairs for the UT System, outlined the profound impact of a lack of insurance on families, communities and community services and the nation. Of particular note has been the increase in use of hospitals' emergency departments by the uninsured, which has been accompanied by the closing of 15 percent of these departments across the nation in large part because hospitals could not afford the cost of care for these patients.

Many of the incremental efforts made over the past 20 years, which have not stemmed the rise in the population of the uninsured (60 to 70 percent of whom are employed), were reviewed by David Warner of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT Austin.

Steven Murdock, the Texas State Demographer, outlined the profound effects of population growth upon the need for health care, particularly among non-Anglo Texans, who are among those with the highest rates of the uninsured in the state. This comes at a time of rapid increases in obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure among these populations.

The task force will have four meetings across the state over the next year – Austin , San Antonio , Brownsville and Dallas/Fort Worth – to study the various efforts being made across Texas to cope with the growing problem. It also will commission papers to study the experiences of other states and to understand how to maximize the application of federal resources in Texas.

Other members of the task force are: Hector Balcazar, assistant dean at UT Health Science Center - Houston in the school of public health at the El Paso regional campus; Dr. Kirk Calhoun, president of UT Tyler Health Center; Dr. Patrick J. Crocker, chief of staff at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin and chief of the hospital's children's emergency services; Dr. Charles Haley, medical director of BlueCross® BlueShield® of Texas; George Hernandez, Jr., executive vice president and assistant administrator for the Bexar County Hospital District University Health System; Winell Herron, group vice president for public affairs and diversity for H-E-B Grocery Company; Rich W. Johnson, Jr., director of division medical economics of the Texas Medical Association; Dr. Fred Lucas, admission review assessment, Cypress Creek Hospital; Dr. Michael McKinney, senior executive vice president and COO of the UT Health Science Center - Houston; Kathy Mechler, director of medical services for the Rural and Community Health Initiative of the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center; Elaine Mendoza, president and CEO of Conceptual Mindworks, Inc.; Steve Murdock, Texas State Demographer; Betsy Schwartz, executive director of the Mental Health Association of Greater Houston; David C. Warner, professor of public affairs at UT Austin and visiting professor at the UT Health Science Center - Houston School of Public Health; and Roy Wilson, president of Texas Tech University Health Science Center.

The study director is Dr. Kirstin Matthews of Rice's Baker Institute.