BROWNSVILLE, Oct. 13 - When Gov. Rick Perry said in Brownsville last week that President Obama’s health care legislation would “bankrupt Texas” three Democratic lawmakers from Cameron County sat stony-faced.

State Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, and state Reps. René Oliveira, D-Brownsville, and Eddie Lucio, III, D-San Benito, were not able to come to the defense of their party’s leader because Perry had the floor at an event at the University of Texas at Brownsville.

After the event, however, the three had an opportunity to seek out the Guardian reporter who had asked Perry what he thought of the latest statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. The statistics show that Cameron County is number four and Hidalgo County number two in the nation for the percentage lacking health insurance.

The Valley legislators chose not to respond after the event and did not put out a statement later refuting Perry’s claims. Their lack of action appears to mirror what has been happening in Hidalgo County during the summer and fall. Hardly any elected official in the Rio Grande Valley has come to the aid of Obama or the three members of Congress from the region who will be voting for health care reform – U.S. Reps. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo.

“Our elected officials in the Valley have not been engaged on the issue of health insurance reform. It is very sad,” said Ester Salinas, founder member of the Justice Advocacy Group. “This is the civil rights issue of our time because it impacts so many Valley families. We have so much to gain by meaningful reform yet we have been badly let down by our leaders. This is why the grassroots should not rely on them.”

Perry made his remarks at UTB/TSC in response to a reporter’s question about a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau which shows that 54.4 percent of working age people in Hidalgo County and 49.5 percent of working age people in Cameron County lack health insurance.

“I agree that we ought to be having the debate about how to make health care and health care delivery more efficient and more affordable but what President Obama and this Congress is talking about is not the answer,” Perry responded.

“We’ve run the numbers on this. The bill that’s in front of Congress today, if it were to be implemented the way it is crafted, it would cost this state somewhere between $3 and $6 billion more every year. That bankrupts this state.”

Perry’s remarks about Texas going bankrupt may not have drawn a response from the Valley but they did from the border city of El Paso.

“Rick Perry advising on health care is like Bernie Madoff advising on family savings.  Now that responsible leaders are crafting responsible solutions, failed leaders like Rick Perry need to let real leaders get to work,” said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso.

Shapleigh said the truth is that Texas stands to benefit more than any other state. By any measure, Texas is now "the ground zero of health care in America,” he said.

Perry’s comments came the same day that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office offered an analysis of a U.S. Senate Finance Committee health plan. Sen. Max Baucus’ bill would reduce the number of uninsured people in the U.S. by about 29 million by 2019, the analysis showed, while costing $829 billion. It would cut the budget deficit by $81 billion over 10 years, the CBO said.

Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). The survey found 24.1 percent of people in Texas lacked health insurance. The state with the least number of uninsured was Massachusetts, where only 4.1 percent go without coverage.

The ACS survey found that four counties along the Texas-Mexico border region are among the top seven counties in the nation for the percentage of uninsured. Among the 18-64 age group, Hidalgo County ranks number two in the nation for uninsured, Webb County number three, Cameron County number four and El Paso County number six.

Perry was asked what he would do about those statistics if returned to office.

“Here’s the one thing that would make the biggest difference: for the federal government to approve the waiver that we have had in front of them for two years,” Perry said.

Senate Bill 10, passed by the Legislature in 2007, directed the Health and Human Services Commission to request a “waiver” of federal Medicaid laws to allow Texas to use federal Medicaid dollars to fund a Health Opportunity Pool (HOP). This pool would provide private insurance to the uninsured parents of children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Bush Administration refused to approve Perry's Medicaid waiver application. CMS has so far done the same under the Obama Administration.

Shapleigh said Perry has had five sessions to fix Texas health care. “In those 10 years, he kicked over 230,000 kids out of CHIP, 500,000 kids out of Medicaid, sent nearly $1 billion in Texas CHIP money back to D.C., presided over 91.6 percent increase in health care premiums and led Texas to dead last in citizens who have health insurance,” Shapleigh said. “Last session, he threatened to veto the CHIP expansion bill that the Texas Senate passed 29-2.”

Shapleigh took issue with Perry over the Medicaid waiver issue. He noted that health care advocates have expressed concern about the adequacy of the limited benefits that would be available within the HOP model and whether low income Texans would be able to afford the premiums. Under HOP, advocates believe that scarce DSH dollars will go from direct health care by hospitals to denial management by insurance companies. 

Shapleigh pointed out that not a single Texas city reaches the national average in citizens with health insurance. He also noted that Texas has fewer doctors, nurses and health professionals than any of the 15 largest U.S. states and along the border Texans have fewer doctors per capita than anywhere in the U.S.

Since 2000, Texas families saw their health insurance premiums soar 91.6 percent—about five times faster than their incomes increased, Shapleigh said.

“What will really bankrupt Texas is four more years of failed leadership that allows one in four to have no health insurance,” Shapleigh added.