Dear Friend of the UT System,
One of the greatest challenges to the future of Texas is the high proportion of residents who do not have health insurance. Nationally, 15.6% of the population has no health insurance at a given time, compared with 25.1% of the population in Texas.
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Dr. Kenneth Shine is the senior advisor of the Task Force for Access to Health Care in Texas |
Emergency rooms and hospitals are overcrowded with uninsured individuals who seek care late in the course of illness, when it is most expensive to provide.
In addition to the harm done to their health, lack of insurance imposes a major economic burden on those who do have insurance.
It is estimated that a family of four with insurance contributes approximately $1,540 a year to subsidize the care of the uninsured.
In 2005 alone, University of Texas campuses provided more than $1.4 billion in uncompensated care. This burden on our institutions is substantial and growing. Seeking care, uninsured patients come from all over the state to communities where many of our institutions are located. Many of the counties where the uninsured live contribute little to their care. Instead, that cost is disproportionately borne by the taxpayers and institutions supplying uncompensated care, often in large urban counties.
With support from Texas’ 10 academic health institutions, a task force of 19 individuals was created to study the state’s growing crisis of health care and insurance. The task force included representatives from small and large businesses, insurers, health care providers, community leaders and health policy experts. After 18 months of study, public hearings and discussion, the group produced a comprehensive report called Code Red: The Critical Condition of Health in Texas.
"In 2005 alone, University of Texas campuses provided more than $1.4 billion in uncompensated care."
Both the six commissioned papers that informed the report, as well as the objective, non-political, and non-partisan nature of the task force and its analysis and recommendations, have given the Code Red report significant credibility. The report’s recommendations identify the roles in which many institutions and policy makers must partner to stem the growing threat to the health and economic well-being of Texas. Copies of the report may be obtained upon request from Maggie Floores or from the website http://www.coderedtexas.org/. A Spanish language version of the report summary is also available upon request. In view of the importance of this subject, all of Texas’ health institutions will be widely disseminating the analysis and recommendations over the next year.
Health is of particular concern in South Texas, where the uninsured rate is very high and health professionals and health facilities are in short supply. A major new initiative has recently been launched by the UT academic campuses of Brownsville and Pan American, joining with the UT health science centers at Houston and San Antonio, the Regional Academic Health Center of UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and the Regional Public Health Campus of the UT Health Science Center at Houston in Brownsville. This new initiative created the Borderplex Health Council, which includes representatives from all of these institutions and from South Texas communities. Thus far, the Council is focusing on two major issues:
- The shortage of nurses in South Texas, as well as efforts to increase the size and scope of nursing educational programs; and
- The growing challenge of diabetes, which is connected to obesity, high blood pressure and related ailments.
All of the institutions in the Borderplex Council have committed to funding cooperative grants designed to stimulate research and to fund healthcare demonstration projects in the Borderplex region. The presidents of our four institutions and regional deans all deserve considerable credit for the initiatives and collaborations they are taking to improve health in the region.
Another major new development for the state was the $50 million gift from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation to The University of Texas at Austin. This gift will provide support toward a new computer science facility, a program to enhance public health efforts to control obesity, and the construction of the Dell Pediatric Research Institute in Austin, immediately adjacent to the new Dell Children’s Hospital.
The Pediatric Research Institute is being created in collaboration with all of the UT System health institutions and the UT Austin campus. Translational research at this Institute will increase the likelihood that fundamental science taking place on the Austin campus can be translated into products, programs and treatments to improve the health of children. The Institute will also increase the synergistic opportunities between UT Austin and the UT health science center campuses, which are growing in many areas — including public health, MD/Ph.D. programs, high performance computing, biomedical engineering, and new drug development. Scheduled for completion no later than May 2009, the Dell Institute will facilitate the recruitment of many new faculty members who can work to move science from the bench to the bedside.
Finally, with the recent election of the first members of the UT Academy of Health Science Education and a successful symposium, "Drugs, Bugs, and Vaccines," conducted in collaboration with the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science, the UT System continues to provide important leadership in education and science across the state. We look forward to working toward future successes that will benefit our state and its citizens.
Best regards,
Dr. Kenneth I. Shine
Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs
The University of Texas System
