Texas 48th In Children’s Health—I’m Certain Governor Perry Can Get Us To Bottom Of List Soon Enough
Texas is 48th overall in the overall condition of the health of children.
From Texas State Representative Garnet Coleman—
“The Commonwealth Fund today released the State Scorecard on Child Health System Performance, 2011 which ranks states and the District of Columbia’s performance on children’s health care. Overall, Texas ranks 48th. The report examines access and affordability, prevention and treatment, potential to lead healthy lives, and equity of the child health care system. Broken down, Texas ranks 50th in access and affordability, 48th in prevention and treatment, 29th in the potential to lead healthy lives, and 50th in equity. Additionally, 18 percent of Texas children are uninsured compared to 10 percent nationally.”
Is the poor health of many children in Texas one of the number of “emergency” legislative issues as declared by Governor Rick Perry?
No.
Governor Perry and the Republican majorities in the Texas State Legislature lack the simple decency to place the welfare of children at the top of the legislative agenda.
And where are rank-and-file Republicans in Texas on these questions?
Read here to see what Governor Perry and the Republican majorities in the legislature see as emergency issues. Not one thing on the table in this respect is a true emergency.
Our State of Texas is run by people who are morally sick. They will let young people be sick and die and never say a word even though they could help address what is taking place.
Texas is 48th in the overall health of children.
Don’t worry though–I’m certain our Governor and our legislature can work as a team to get us to the bottom of this list by the end of the current legislative session.
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The link to that Commonwealth Fund document is broken; here’s a good one: http://goo.gl/8cHLg
It’s interesting that several of the actual health outcomes don’t jibe with the “access and affordability” section. For example, infant and child mortality rates are near or better than the national average, and the percent of kids actually getting preventive care isn’t much different than the national average, despite our #50 rank in “access and affordability.”
The disparity suggests to me that the access/affordability metric isn’t measured well, or that something is at play that isn’t being measured at all.
Hey Neil, some good research for you to gather. Go to all your local hospitals, and find how many uninsured children visit the emergency room a year, how many can;t pay. How much money is this costing your hospitals. I bet your local Republicians are well cared for and their children. l
Matt–Thanks for the better link. It seems in any case that the helth needs of children in Texas, likely enough in any case, are of greater pressing need than are the items the Governor has decided to focus on first in the current legislative session.
Ms. Radford–I wager there are many rank-and-file Republicans in Texas and elsewhere without coverage and who have a hard time with medical bills. Without forgetting that beliefs have value as well as material self-interest, it is difficult the see the false concern of socialism and strong-armed government being of such great peril that you would put your health at risk.
Thanks to both Matt and Ms. Radford for your ongoing comments here.