State Cuts Squeezing Elderly Poor and Their Doctors
After completing his family medicine residency in 1985, Dr. Javier Saenz opened a practice in the Rio Grande Valley town of La Joya. Born 20 miles away in Rio Grande City and raised by a father who worked as a grocery clerk and a mother who worked on a farm, Saenz wanted to “come home” and serve the valley, an impoverished region that is medically underserved.
Today, Saenz Medical Center treats up to 150 patients per day. Saenz is the volunteer physician for the local high schools and their football teams. A middle school is named after him.
Despite his ...
Comments (17)
Mary Smith Martinez via Texas Tribune on Facebook
As long as the rich keep getting richer here...WTF is happening to Texas????
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What is happening to Texas? Rick Perry/GOP/Tea Party. That is what has happened to Texas.
Jalapeno Schwartz via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This is an outrage! Time to march on the capital. Liquidate the Governor's so called "pension"!
Rudy Gonzales
This is what you get from a one-party state! Rick Perry and his henchmen in the Texas legislature have totally bankrupted the state and shoved our children under the school buss. Now this one man-one party show are going after the poor. Kinda reminds you of Romney's "I'm not interested in the poor" comments and Perry sneaked his hand into the Texas cookie jar to reward himself with retirement pay. Wake up Texans, and throw the bums out!
Rudy Gonzales
And here's the best part - Zak Covar has been appointed by Rick Perry to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as chief Administrator. With a 354 million dollar budget and 2800 people working there, 'Ol Zak will be making a killing while not having any real experience or education in Environmental quality. The fact that Zak favors industry giants points to his anti-environmental stance. I like to breath, drink clean water and uh....I forget....oops!
Beverly Nuckols via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The only way to raise money to pay for more medicare would be to raise State taxes. The only way to do that is to hold an election for a State Constitutional amendment. How would you write that law?
Bea McGuire via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I believe you are mistaken. Medicare is a federal program, not state. Medicaid is the state program.
Texascattleco
Texas Republicans, many of them, serve their campaign supporters but not the districts they are elected to represent. It is past time for Texas to become a two party state again however the Texas Voter I.D. Law passed last year was designed to depress voting. Voter suppression has no place in a representative democracy but Republicans are trying to keep control of the state by turning away people at the polls. Shame on them.
Beverly Nuckols via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yes, I intended to say "Medicaid." However, since Medicaid is State, why do we have to put up with the Obama standoff to get our own tax dollars back? The Legislature will not be in session until January. We'll have to pull the funds from other HHS programs.
gypsy314 ne
I have a answer for more money remove all the illegal aliens from our welfare system and then money would be there for our citizens. Democrats want to keep them on the welfare system to get them to vote for democrats.
Juan Reynoso
Fellow Texas I Am 75 years old, during my working years i contributed to social security and medicare, what I and the thousands of Texas get as social security and medicare is the return on the money that we paid for those services. The problem is that the Federal Government use our money to pay for social security and medicaid benefits to people that never contribute to the system, old immigrants that where sponsored by their sons and daughters and become Americans citizens but never paid into the system, the federal government also used our money to paid for the illegal immigrants medicaid and all case of medical service given to illegal aliens at any hospital in this united states is paid by the medicaid.
It is a shame that this corrupt government penalized that people that made this country great. In our time we do not have any food stamp programs or any social service, we pay for every thing we was hard working people and do not engage in crimes, criminals where few and it was the law that was firm and punish the criminals. Fellow Americans where are our values, do we lost every thing that made this country great?. What I learn during my year in this world, is that people are good is the system that is bad and corrupt. The solution change the system, before they destroy what we build.
God save us from our own demise.
Juan Reynoso
FELLOW TEXANS DO YOU WANT REAL CHANGE, INVEST IN TEXAS YOUR TIME IS WHAT WE NEED BECOME AN ACTIVIST AND FIGHT FOR TEXAS. FREEDOM IS BASE ON TRUST – TRUST IS BASE ON TRUTH.
PAZ ES EL RESPETO AL DERECHO AJENO – PEACE IS THE RESPECT TO THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS - (FOREIGNERS RESPECT THE U.S SOVEREIGNTY )
WAKE UP TEXANS-DO NOT LET DIRTY MONEY BUY THE WHITE HOUSE AGAIN
WE LIVE IN SUCH EXCITING TIMES!!!! TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE SUCH A DIFFERENCE !!!!
We know that our country is being demise by the Washington culture of corruption and the Mainstream News Media that are own by the ruling class (The predator multinational corporatism).
The only way that we will take our country back, is by voting the corrupt politicians out of Washington and do not let CORPORATIONS AND THE RULING CLASS money buy the White House and our congress.
Some of the rats are abandon the sinking ship to avoid their responsibility for their participation of what is coming. We the people will not forget those that destroy our country, their time will come, to answer for their betrayal and crimes against the people of this United states.
ACORN – is alive and working with the organizations of traitor ( LA RAZA, MALDEF, MECHA, LULAC, THE HISPANIC CAUCUS, THE TEXAS HISPANIC CAUCUS, THE NATIONAL HISPANIC LEADERSHIP, AND THE PROMOTERS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION), to place in the White House Obama, they will used any thing to gain political power, that is why we need to stand together and demand the eradication of voting fraud in every state in the union. Democrats are the promoters of electoral fraud, through voting registration and open voting systems that do not require proper identification of citizenship. Our Constitution and our voting rights laws are violate by the corrupt US Dept. of justice that support this rampant violation of our electoral system. " Voting is not a privilege; it is a fundamental right guaranteed by more constitutional amendments than any other right we have. But the US DEPT. Of Justice play politics and violated our U.S. Constitution." Obama and ACORN have the money to corrupt the people, we must work in unity to make sure that they do not steal the white house again. Please focus on the following.
1.THE INTEGRITY OF THE VOTE: PROTECTING THE VOTE FROM FRAUD. poll watching/election judges/election clerks/ voter picture ID cards/ cleaning up the voter registration records. Dead people, children or non-citizens should not vote,
2. GETTING OUT THE CONSERVATIVE VOTE Precinct chairs/phone banking - block
walking - registering conservative people to vote – inform people of the Washington culture
of corruption – use the Internet - your e-mail, face-book and the media, force them to report
the truth.
FREEDOM IS BASE ON TRUST – TRUST IS BASE ON TRUTH
We must strengthen the federal government by redirecting its time, energy and resources toward those objects for which it bears express constitutional responsibility. Our Government is a government of limited and enumerated powers. The power not delegated to the federal government by the written Constitution is reserved to the states or to the people respectively. Stop the White House and congress from trashing our constitution and making our country a socialist Nazism country.
http://www.usconstitution.net
tom brown
This is another of the horrible catch-22s floating around these days. Rising cost of medical treatment and rising number of poorer people exhausts reasonable funding levels with no end in sight and no cure in sight. In additiion, this situation does not address the millions of people without medical insurance who are not quite 'poor' enough to qualify for what Medicare/Medicade programs there are. I think this was only inevitable, under any administration, Demo or Repub. Unfortunately I don't have any answer. :-(
V Marshall
@ Mary Smith Martinez
What rich keep getting richer? The median income in Texas has dropped dramatically in the past decade. In fact Texas saw one of the steepest drops in income of all states even BEFORE the recession. If you look at national migration data, you start to suspect that middle class flight FROM Texas started several years ago and is likely to intensify. As one of those transplants in a community full of transplants, I can tell you people accept jobs here because they think they are getting a lower cost of living and decent neighborhood public schools for their children, but that is a fallacy. In the first 5 years I lived here, my property tax doubled. I had friends who sold their house ONLY because they could no longer meet the mortgage with the added tax and still save for their children's futures. The public school funding may be $8700 per student in the state as a whole but in my community it is only $6300 because the rest of our taxes go to support "disadvantaged" schools. So people leave because Texas is hot humid and miserable for outsiders and the public services are worse than what they are used to even though the taxes are higher than what they are used to. Home owners insurance is higher here. Auto insurance is higher here. Utilities are higher here. Taxes are higher here. They only thing more affordable is a home and that gap is closing.
You can switch back to a Democratic House, Senate, and Governor but you have structural problems that are not going to be solved until you broaden the tax base, and there is no draw here to do that. Personally we have been holding out for a job out-of-state but now are willing to retire early just to get our house sold and get out of Texas because when the Medicaid expansion required by Affordable Care is implemented, no one will be buying houses in Texas. There are obvious problems in Texas that contribute to its being one of 2 states that spend more on Medicaid than education but obviously no one in Texas is willing to discuss that so for those of us who feel no allegiance to the state, it is just easier to move than deal with it. Good luck. This is the reason we were moved from CA to TX the first time back in the 80's I suspect the same thing will happen here as happened there. Firms just quietly start transferring operations to other states, and "non-essential" personnel lose their jobs. It really tanked the housing market in the SF bay area for a time.
Another 99%
Why doesn't the AMA, the Doctors, and patients, form a civil action suit against the state for violating patient/Doctor rights, for the fees owed. privacy, and attacking small business's.
Sure the voters need to be informed as to, who ,the creepy people are that pretend to represent their districts.
Wally Parnel via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Perry and his jack-booted buddies, are now violating the rules for federal programs and losing our tax dollars to other states, and plotting to reap more profits, for the Sheep who votes for them. Disgusting disturbing. But Texans don't vote, they just rather put up with being abused and hurt. Texans vote for Boots, Hats, and Slurred speech only.
Lawrence Mallette
It is quite expensive to run a medical office. The overhead is generally in the 45-60% range. Medicare payments (including the 20% co-payment required by Uncle Sam) essentially cover the overhead. The physician takes home little or nothing for a Medicare "encounter."
Without the 20% co-payment, the physician is paying for the privilege of seeing the patient. If Medicaid does not cover a service, the patient must pay for the service or not receive it. I'm pretty sure, however, the physician is forbidden to ask the Medicaid patient for the co-payment for an office visit. Good way to put physicians out of business.