Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

“The Eyes of America Are on You”

Here’s an amazing fact—not one Texas city reaches the national average in people with health insurance.  Not a single one—not Dallas, Houston or even Austin.  Take a look at this chart:

Click here to view larger image.

Why is that? One reason is that our state has few union employees. Back in 1993, right-to-work labor laws were enacted to favor owners over workers.  So unlike workers in California and many states in the Midwest and East, Texas workers do not have union protections on health contracts.  The recent contract negotiations between GM and the United Auto Workers turned on who would pay for health care.  For automakers especially, health care costs are increasingly the driver on whether a GM car is competitive or not.

When each GM car carries $1200 to $1500 in health care costs—significantly more than Toyota—you can see why the costs of health insurance and health care are the top issues in today's presidential debates.

Another reason is the high number of small businesses and relative low number of large employers in Texas.  About 85% of all businesses in Texas are small businesses with less than 50 employees.  With health care costs increasing an average of 11% per annum since 2001, more and more small business are saying "no" when it comes to health insurance.  In fact, over two-thirds of small employers in Texas do not provide health insurance for their employees.  And when employers do offer coverage, Texans pay higher premiums than those in other states—premiums in Texas for private employer-sponsored coverage were almost $300 more for an individual and $1300 more for a family in 2006.

Overall, Texas has less employer-based insurance than almost any state in the country.  That’s why the national debate on SCHIP and universal health care makes so much sense for Texas.  Given that Texas has more uninsured children and citizens than any other state, we stand to gain the most from this debate.

Why then do Texas politicians like John Cornyn oppose expansion of SCHIP?  You may want to take a look at who funds campaigns against universal health care.  Today in the U.S., private insurers spend 20 to 25% of all claims paid on administrative costs, which include denial management.  In contrast, the administrative costs for Medicaid are 4 to 6%.

In other words, insurance companies hire more and more people to deny the claim that the doctor or hospital sends, who then send it to you.

How many of you have gotten a bill in the mail from your doctor or hospital after the insurance company, which you paid all these years to handle your health insurance, refused to pay the bill?

More and more, Texans are fed up with "balance billing," the practice of sending the balance of the bill to the patient because the insurance company refused to pay.  And more and more Texans want access to quality health care—just like every other industrialized nation.  In fact, a recent study by the Commonwealth Fund shows 82% of respondents believe that the U.S. health care system needs fundamental changes or to be completely rebuilt.

And that’s why this political season will be so interesting for us.  Without doubt, Texas is now the ground zero of health care, and when the debates heat up in March, you can bet the eyes of America will be on Texas.

Eliot Shapleigh