Texas: Health Care Reform (Download as a PDF)

The Issue

CHRISTUS Health’s ministry is committed to health coverage for all. This commitment is based on Catholic social justice teaching and a mission of service to the poor. For millions of vulnerable persons who do not have health insurance for them or their families. The current U.S. health care system lacks accessibility. CHRISTUS Health recognizes that the health care funding as well as delivery needs improvement.

Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured, but does not have a comprehensive plan to improve the delivery of healthcare to assure all Texans access to quality, affordable health care coverage.

CHRISTUS Health is working in collaboration with government, business and other health care providers in the development and implementation of a future health care system that expands access to affordable and high-quality health care services to all individuals in Texas.

CHRISTUS Health anticipates that an omnibus package of legislation will be introduced in the 80th Texas Legislature to increase access to adequate insurance, to require employers to provide coverage to employees and to mandate that individuals maintain a minimum level of health insurance coverage.

The CHRISTUS Health Position: Advocate for health care reform.

CHRISTUS Health supports public policies that provide funding and access to adequate health care for all Texans. We support the alignment of providers, government, employers, payers, and individuals to assure the fulfillment of that vision. To achieve that goal, CHRISTUS Health supports health care reform that includes a clearly defined combination of public and private financing and employer- employee mandates. Health care reform should include incentives for adequate insurance offerings, quality, accountability and state financing for indigent populations. Any comprehensive health care reform initiative must also address the way end-of-life services are financed and provided.

CHRISTUS Health continues to seek to raise public awareness of the injustice of the inadequacy pf health care funding, particularly with regard to the uninsured, and to help build support for changes especially for the uninsured.

January 2007