EL PASO, Texas (AP) _ Texas leads the country in the number of people without health insurance, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday, and the problem is pushing hospitals into debt and doctors out of El Paso County, officials said.
Among the hardest hit states are those with a large Hispanic population, including Texas, New Mexico and California. They all exceeded the national average.
A Census Bureau study shows that 24.7 percent of Texas residents were without insurance during the two-year period ending in December. That’s more than a 1 percent increase from the prior two-year period.
Texas also had the nation’s highest proportion of uninsured in the 2000-01 period, which is attributed partly to weak social programs, high unemployment and a large migrant population.
Nationwide, Hispanics continued as the racial or ethnic group with the highest uninsured levels with 32.4 percent, the same as in 2001. El Paso is more than 70 percent Hispanic.
The study did not break down figures by city or region, but El Paso health care officials say the problem is creating a drain on resources.
El Paso County doctors have a patient load that is between 30 percent and 60 percent uninsured, said Dr. Luis Acosta president of the El Paso Medical Society. That number keeps growing, he said.
“In (some areas) 60 percent are uninsured and the rest are Medicaid,” Acosta said. “They (Medicaid patients) are almost as expensive to treat as the uninsured.”
Acosta said many doctors burn out and leave, particularly those working in the poorest parts of town.
“They have to see three times more patients per day than the rest of the state,” Acosta said, “and that’s the only way to make ends meet.”
Thomason Hospital, which is run by the county, spent $69.2 million on charity care and carried $28 million in bad debt in the 2002 fiscal year, the most recent numbers available, hospital spokeswoman Margaret Althoff-Olivas said.
In 2001, the hospital spent $49.7 million on charity care and $32.1 million on bad debt, she said.
“Those numbers have grown every year for at least the past five years,” Althoff-Olivas said.
In 2002, the hospital received $36.8 million from local property taxes and about $25 million in federal funds for its operating budget, she said.
“All of that can be traced directly to the (budget) cuts passed by the Legislature last year,” Althoff-Olivas said.
Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson, chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Health and Human Services, couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
