Today, approximately 4.6 million Texans are uninsured, and all evidence indicates that this figure will continue to rise.
A March conference held at the LBJ School explored realistic public and private options for expanding health care coverage to more Texans. By providing a forum for open discourse and gathering a variety of stakeholders to discuss important issues, conference organizers hope to start drafting recommendations for future policy.
Among the speakers was Mark McClellan, a medical doctor and professor of economics at Stanford University, who gave a keynote address on federal initiatives to expand coverage of the uninsured. Also participating were Dean Clancy, senior policy advisor to U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey; James Rohack, president of the Texas Medical Association; and LBJ School Professor Kenneth Apfel, former U.S. Social Security Commissioner (see story).
The conference examined social and economic aspects of the health insurance coverage problem in both private and public sectors. Panelists focusing on the private sector explored such issues as employer-based health insurance, barriers to coverage, and options for expanding coverage. The panel on the public sector discussed the government's ability to provide affordable health care options through Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and other public programs.
In other sections of the conference, participants discussed such topics as private insurance options for small businesses, the Texas Health Insurance Risk Pool, expansion options for CHIP and Medicaid, and Hispanic issues in health insurance.
The conference was organized by this year's policy research project on options for the uninsured in Texas. Under the direction of LBJ School Professors David Warner and Kenneth Apfel, students in the project provided background papers for each of the conference's breakout sessions and reported on the results of the discussions during the final plenary session. The proceedings of the conference will be published this summer.
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Jocelyn Guyer, senior policy analyst with the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Jerry Haisler, director of the Central Texas Workforce Center in Killeen, were among the participants at a conference on health care coverage for the uninsured. Photo by María de la Luz Martínez |
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May 14, 2001
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