Texas
“It’s poised to hurt our most vulnerable population: our children.”
— Terri Major-Kincaide, MD, Neonatology, Dallas, TX
“I am the administrative medical director for ‘Mission of Mercy, Texas,’ a non-profit, non-government funded, organization that sees uninsured patients for free. If the BCRA causes an increase in the number of uninsured, then our patient population is going to more than double, making it harder for us to provide care.
When politicians refer to ER care as ‘Health Care,’ they ignore the reality of the uninsured:
-Woman who has anemia due to abnormal uterine bleeding. The only option is to wait until she is critical and then she will go to the ER where she will get one or two blood transfusions and be told to consult a specialist (she can’t without insurance).
-Man with gallstones who has repeated bouts of abdominal pain. He is given pain medication in the ER and sent home with instructions to see a surgeon (he can’t without insurance).
-Diabetic who cannot afford his medications so presents to the ER in a diabetic emergency. He might be admitted, stabilized and then sent out with a prescription for insulin (that he cannot afford to buy).
It is not only the human cost of suffering that we must consider as physicians, it is the economic toll that these patients present when they suffer a stroke, renal failure, hepatitis from repeated transfusions.
I urge the Senate, the House, and Mr. Trump to consider these issues carefully and with heart.”
— John Navar, MD, Anesthesiology, Corpus Christi, TX
“Medicaid has provided many of my patients with liver transplants, treatment of hepatitis C, and many other liver problems who would simply have had virtually no access to care for these problems without it.”
— Victor Ostrower, MD, Hepatology, San Antonio, TX
“Medicaid allows moms to be healthy during their pregnancy and babies to achieve their full potential.”
— Lisa Glenn, MD, Family Medicine, Austin, TX
“This ends up harming our fellow Americans while costing the healthcare system much more money. On average, it costs 3x as much to treat serious conditions than to prevent them. Without adequate healthcare, these people will overload our hospitals and EDs.”
— Ron Levin, MD, Family Medicine, Austin, TX
“Without Medicaid, many of my patients would not be able to access preventative care and would wind up with much more serious illnesses that cost taxpayers in the millions for a single patient’s care. In fact, some of them already have these conditions before we can improve their access to care.”
— Christie Shanafelt, MD, Family Medicine, Richardson, TX
“I have a patient who has had multiple heart attacks before the age of 50 because of a genetic pre-dispostion to premature cardiac disease. He will become un-insurable under the AHCA. We are not buying him a sports car when we provide insurance coverage for him. We are paying for his life.”
— Christine Eady-Mann, DO, Family Medicine, Leander, TX
