Gingrich and Perry Tout Texas Health Care Mess

[white cloud]

Everything, they say, is bigger in the Texas. So it is with the failure of the health care system. Leading the nation with a jaw-dropping 25% of its residents uninsured, Texas ranked 46th in the Commonwealth Fund's 2009 scorecard of state health care performance. All of which makes Friday's op-ed by Newt Gingrich and Governor Rick Perry touting the mess in Texas all the more puzzling.

Just two days after the CBO dismissed a House Republican plan that would barely dent the rolls of the uninsured, Perry and Gingrich blasted Democratic health care reform in a Washington Post screed titled, "Let States Lead the Way." Besides dredging up Newt's worn out 1990's vintage talking points on unfunded mandates, the duo insist it is the Lone Star State which should be at the front of that vanguard:

Texas, for example, has adopted approaches to controlling health-care costs while improving choice, advancing quality of care and expanding coverage. Consider the successful 2003 tort reform. Fewer frivolous lawsuits have attracted record numbers of doctors to the state as medical malpractice insurance premiums dropped by half. Christus Health, a large Catholic nonprofit system with a significant presence in Texas, spent about $100 million on liability defense payments in 2003. Last year, Christus spent $2.3 million on such payments. Much of that savings has gone into expanding health-care services in low-income neighborhoods.
SNIP.....

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/gingrich-and-perry-tout-dismal-texas-health-care

[sonias]

1. Chart brings it home

Source: Commonwealth Fund

Here's a direct link to the Commonwealth Fund report
Aiming Higher: Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Performance, 2009

The State Scorecard Summary chart on the Commonwealth site gives you a more detailed chart of all the states. Texas is 46th followed by Nevada, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi

Texas ranked in the fourth quartile for 4 of the 5 performance indicators
Access, Prevention and Treatment, Avoidable Hospital Use and Costs, Equity.

Our rank for access to health care - 51 - Absolutely the worst - bottom of the barrel!

And we ranked in the third quartile for the last indicator
Healthy Lives #21.

We need to be screaming for the Senate to save our lives in Texas.


Like I said Perry is delusional. And he's a liar too.

Sonia