Note: For rankings, 1 = Worst Outcome. 1 = Highest Number of Potential Deaths; Highest Number of Potential Sick Workers

Data is from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) report on the healthyamericans.org website.  It was also corroberated by reports at the US Census Bureau and the Texas Health and Human Services websites.


 

Looking at the charts above, we see that Texas' Health Care outlook is appalling.  We have the highest rate of uninsured in America, 10% higher than the national average.  Of the 9 major Health Indicators covered in the full report, Texas ranked in the Top 10 for 6 of them, leaving only Alzheimer's, Asthma, and Tobacco use.  Our shortage of Health Care Professionals is first or second in all areas.  We also have the potential to lose more people during an epidemic than most other states, from both mortality and loss of work days due to illness.  National Health Care will be decided by Federal Legislators not Governors, but all Health Care isn't national.  It's time to raise the bar and flip some of those numbers around.

Proper nutrition and exercise are the two most important factors to good health.  We need to start promoting proper lifestyle choices, nothing will bring the cost of health care down like the people not getting sick.  Ranking 8th for the most inactive was quite a surprise to me.  Yes, all of America could use more exercise, and sure, the average job is less physical than in the past, but Texans have a more "do-it-yourself" attitude.  We will really need that attitude to get a handle on these issues.  There are several things I propose to alter our present course, first, let's take a cue from Japan. 

For several years now, many Japanese companies have started their workday, with a workout.  They say that it not only makes the employees more fit, it relaxes and invigorates them, focuses their mind, and brings a sense of community to the work place.  I would like to see a "Texas Fitness Hour", a time every morning that everyone, from the Governor on down, gets to do some stretching, aerobics, and a little resistance exercises.  We would find a time that would be most convenient for work and school, then broadcast an hour long exercise program state-wide.  We would encourage businesses to adopt this into their daily routine, or an equally suitable program, and encourage the stay-at-home people to join in.  We would also make it mandatory for Texas schools, and all Civil Servants to participate in this program.* The benefits of this program go far beyond simple exercise, it would be a whole new mind set for people.  It would bring a sense of camaraderie, knowing that every government employee and most of the rest of this state is exercising, right along with you.  It would encourage a more health-conscious direction in our daily routines.  It would increase productivity at the work place and in school.  It would have an ancillary effect on crime by reducing stress and promoting a sense of communal well-being, the people would be happier and healthier.

It is estimated that a full 25% of HC costs are from paperwork and redundant or unnecessary procedures.  A simple central Medical Database  would easily solve most of that amount.  The resistance to doing this has been mainly the fear that insurance companies and employers would be able to get access to these records and use the information to abuse the system and negatively affect the consumer.  Why do we allow them access to, or let them use, the data against the Consumer?  If we have so many laws to protect the citizen, why is it in this area we just let Big Insurance have its way?  Who runs this country; Political Parties, Elected Representatives, Big Business, or the People? 

We can turn this around by making a database of personal medical files that can be accessed by any medical practitioner that has a legitimate reason.  We keep track of everyone that accesses any of the records and have stiff penalties for anyone that abuses the system.  We encourage Hospitals, Doctors, and Insurance companies to work out a fair and reasonable price chart for basic procedures and services, based upon the community they are in.  This will bring some standardization to fee's making your #1 concern the quality of your doctor, not his price.  This will, by its very nature, bring Tort Reform.  By standardizing prices and fees, it gives a jury a realistic base for the true cost of medical care.  This will cause them to award damages more in line with the actual procedures and services that will have to be done to reconcile the patient.  This will also make it very hard for Doctors and Lawyers to abuse the system, on either side.  The savings due to lower insurance premiums and actual loss of money by doctors and hospitals, may be a small percentage, but the average consumer isn't worried so much about the cost of a hospital stay as they are about the cost of their personal physician, medication, and out-patient procedures, all affected by lower premiums.

Another issue that we have to become aware of, is that Texas, along with California, N. Mexico, and Arizona, is a disease gateway state.  Texas and California are the most prominent in the amount of illegal immigrants that cross the border.  As with the new H1N1 Swine Flu, we have many different diseases crossing the border everyday with the illegals that come from countries whose health care systems and medical practices are not on par with the US.  Drug-resistant strains of Tuberculosis, we rank 2nd in the nation for new cases, have long been attributed to the illegal immigrants.  The dilemma gets worse, Houston and Dallas have huge Airport Terminal Hubs, the "Southern Highway", I-10, has a third of its total distance in Texas and another third in the other 3 Gateway states, this facilitates spreading anything we catch here, to the rest of the world.  Texas and California have dense population centers where the illegals tend to congregate, with large transportation centers and international traffic, all combining into a true recipe for disaster.  The first documented death from H1N1 in America, may have happened in Texas, but where all has it happened since then, just Texas, just California?  Add to that we are #4 for potential deaths and #2 for illnesses in a pandemic, and that we have a major shortage of Health Care professionals to dispense any vaccine, and this turns extremely deadly.  There is no excuse for this shortsighted and dangerous approach to protecting the citizens of Texas and America.  Hurricane Ike has shown us that it is totally naive to expect our Federal, State, and Local governments to be adequately prepared to handle emergency situations.  If they don't have enough sense or ability to even keep a highway in good repair, an everyday job, how can we expect them to properly handle something like this...oh wait, they aren't.  There is no excuse for the people to accept or tolerate this, time to change the game.

We need to promote plans that will alleviate the burden on the system, that streamline, standardize, and open lines of communication and access to necessary patient data for qualified doctors.  We need to institute Health Care decisions that actually produce results: Bring Fitness and Wellness to the forefront; Work more on prevention and early detection; Teach better hygiene and other health-conscious safety measures like covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, washing your hands, and not eating or drinking after anyone; Cut off avenues of exposure to new strains of diseases; and though this may upset some people, the reality is, We can't afford to pay for people we are not responsible for.

And finally, paying for it all...  Nothing we can do will be free, however dealing with the issues that we can or must accomplish, will leave more resources available than a blanket solution.  The Federal Health Reform Bill is a joke, an attempt at socializing America, and just cost too much for too little.  We need to concentrate on the uninsured and the under-insured.  We need to stop Drug Companies from spending millions of dollars to advertise their products on TV and the radio, people have no clue what medicine they will need, why encourage them to demand it from their physician?  With a well planned and instituted set of programs, we can do much better for the average citizen than we are doing now.  The Government must serve it's people, it must do what they Will it to do, and it must always treat the People's money as if it is the People's money.

No Government, no Economy, no Church, no People has ever solved all the worlds problems, yet.  And we will not solve all the problems that we face either, but, we can do Better Tomorrow than we are Today...and get a damn site closer than our present Politicians.


*Recently I was questioned about making the Exercise Program mandatory for all governmental employees.  When you are a Civil Servant, you are working for the people on the people's dime.  Your Health Care is supplemented by taxes and for that reason, you are subject to certain provisions.  If you make personal lifestyle choices that increase the expenditure of tax money for those choices, the people have a right to impose conditions or to recoup that expenditure.  Several employee insurance plans, as well as, certain governmental agencies, already have a similar system, they charge extra for smokers.  Several different agencies and organizations have determined that obesity is the #1 cause of health problems in America.  I don't think that it is a violation of freedom to expect people that don't even respect their own health to pay for their own decision.  To minimize Lost Work days and Health Care expenditures for Public Servants, mandatory exercise programs are necessary and fair.  Besides, why would anyone complain that something is making them more healthy?  However, as I have stated elswhere, I will argue my case and let the People decide, I will not force my own agenda on anyone.  Ultimately, I am the Servant of the People, not their master.