Delegation touts healthcare reform as 'best choice' for South Texas

McALLEN — Roosevelt Jasso used a Wal-Mart pharmacy for his self-diagnosis.

The 23-year-old watched with alarm as his blood pressure gradually went up each time he checked it during regular shopping trips to the Wal-Mart off Expressway 83 and Shary Road. With no health insurance, the shipping clerk who hadn’t seen a physician in four years was unsure of how to pay for a routine checkup.

A friend pointed him to McAllen’s El Milagro Clinic, which subsidizes visits for low-income people, where he got a clean bill of health Monday from a physician who attributed Jasso’s Wal-Mart blood pressure readings to work-related stress.

The brief health alarm showed Jasso his need for health insurance, but he said he can’t afford the weekly $50-premiums he has to pay through his employer.

“(Health insurance) is something I would like but I don’t have the money right now,” he said as he waited to checkout of the clinic Monday afternoon. “You never know when you might need it.”

The South Texas delegation said their votes in support of the landmark health care reform bill that will be signed into law today was the right choice for the Rio Grande Valley, one of the most uninsured regions of the country.

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As Republicans vowed to repeal the law if they gain control of Congress and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said he would join other states in challenging the law as unconstitutional, the Democratic leaders from South Texas said the bill would extend coverage to 615,000 uninsured residents in their Congressional districts.

U.S. Reps. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, also touted the bill as lowering health insurance premiums, closing the Medicare Part D donut hole and offering tax credits to small businesses that provide health insurance to employees.

Cuellar, who ignored phone calls from the White House as he made his decision, was undecided about his vote until Saturday afternoon. But after numerous telephone calls with health care administrators, community leaders and others in his district, Cuellar said he decided the bill would provide “immediate reforms that will improve health care for my constituents.”

“I just wanted to read the bill and confirm what it did,” Cuellar said Monday. “I looked at the pros and cons, and I felt this bill was the best choice for my district.”

While the Valley’s Congressional representatives highlighted individual reforms such as preventing discrimination for pre-existing conditions or allowing parents to keep their children on their health insurance up to the age of 26, each kept referring to the Valley’s high rate of uninsured residents in discussing their vote in favor of the bill.

Hinojosa, who was unavailable for an interview Monday, said in a statement that more than 40 percent of residents in his district do not have health insurance coverage. Many get healthcare at the emergency room, the most expensive point of service.

“That costs all of us more money and contributes to the high premiums that are forcing employers and families to drop coverage,” Hinojosa said in the statement. “This bill will end that and help us get a handle on out-of-control health care cost increases.”

And Ortiz, who was also undecided until Saturday afternoon, said the bill would save the country money by offering preventative care to uninsured Americans.

Because many chronic diseases can be cheaply treated if they are caught early, getting South Texas residents to the doctor at the first sign of symptoms will reduce health care costs, he said. By improving access to health care in South Texas, health care reform will also contribute to a healthier economy.

“For South Texas, because we have a big number of people that don’t have insurance, this is going to help us,” Ortiz said, noting that small businesses will be able to obtain lower insurance premiums at a rate comparable to ones given to large employers. “We’re going to have a stronger work force and we will be more competitive.”

As health insurance costs have gone up, fewer employers are able to provide the service to their employees, said Grace Lawson, the executive director of El Milagro Clinic, where about 80 percent of the patients are uninsured. While some of the clinic’s patients are unemployed, most work in low-income jobs where the employee can’t afford to pay for health insurance.

The clinic has seen a greater number of patients as more employers shift more of the burden of paying for insurance to their employees.

“Employers have to think of whatever means they can to cut expenses down,” she said. “Unfortunately, health insurance is one of the things that go first.”

Lawson would know.

Facing a shortfall of state and private funding for the clinic’s operations, El Milagro’s board of directors is reconsidering its tradition of paying 100 percent of health insurance costs for its employees, she said. Some of the cost could be passed on to the employees.

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.