In Texas, access to health care is rationed by ZIP code. If you live on the border or in the state's vast rural areas, you'll have trouble getting to a family doctor.

Even if you live in a city, you might have trouble finding a family physician if you live in the wrong ZIP code.

Doctors know that, and legislators know that. There are solutions offered to fix it, but as is often the case, politics and influence can wallop good public policy.

Though Texas legislators can't make doctors, they can make it attractive for young physicians, dentists and other medical professionals to open up practices along the border, in the state's rural communities and in the inner cities where they are needed.

A bill sponsored by state Reps. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, and Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, would encourage doctors and dentists to locate in the state's underserved areas by offering to help repay their student loans. State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, is sponsoring another version of the student loan repayment bill aimed solely at doctors and paid for by increasing licensing fees.

The money for the Raymond-Chisum bill would come from closing a tobacco tax loophole. Every pack of cigarettes is taxed. Smokeless tobacco — you know, "chaw," snuff, dip, even rolling tobacco — is taxed on price. That tax advantage can be widened if manufacturers cut the tax in half by offering two for one specials on a product that is a known health hazard.

Business is good enough for the "people's tobacco" — as some refer to it with a straight face — that the industry can afford high-powered lobbyists to maintain the loophole. The lobbyists are earning their money. The House version is bottled up in committee. Zaffirini hasn't rounded up the 21 votes needed to bring her bill to the Senate floor. Time is running out.

Don't expect anyone to jump up and crow about killing those bills. Instead, what opposition that does surface will focus on problems with the bills. The truth is, whatever problems there are could be fixed if the bills get an honest debate. But that cannot happen as long as the bills languish in committee or beg for support.

While the bills languish, the problem grows.

Of the state's 254 counties, 114 do not meet the national standard for one physician for every 3,500 people, according to the Texas Academy of Family Physicians. As the state's population increases, front-line doctors and other medical professionals will be in even shorter supply along the border, in rural areas and in the inner cities.

The average medical school graduate walks off the stage with a diploma and a $130,000 debt. A medical practice in a rural area won't generate enough to repay that debt promptly, so newly minted doctors opt for urban and suburban practices or gravitate toward lucrative specialty practices.

Zaffirini, Chisum and Raymond are offering help, but their bills are dying. Not from neglect, though. Quite the contrary. Somebody is paying close attention to keep them where they are.