Texas patients struggle to access healthcare, urge lawmakers to act
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By Texans For Healthcare Access
Texans for Healthcare Access is a group of highly diverse organizations representing consumers, business, and a broad range of health care stakeholders working to improve access to quality, local healthcare for all Texans.
Lawmakers can solve the healthcare crisis this session. The HEAL Texans Act, Senate Bill 1700 will change lives by expanding access to trusted Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, providing care closer to home.
“We’re in a crisis. There’s lots of people out there who need lots of help. Without Tracy’s help (my nurse practitioner) I would not be here today. I would not have survived the lifestyle I was living.”
— Cynthia, a mental health patient from Longview, Texas
“Everything is bigger and better in Texas. But when I look at the fact that 21 rural hospitals have closed in the last decade, I think about the administrators that are having trouble sleeping thinking about how they’re going to keep their doors open in their hospital to provide care to their community.”
— Ken, nurse practitioner who worked at a critical access hospital in St. Augustine, Texas
“Nurse practitioners are wanting to move into rural health, but having to have an agreement with a physician that can be 100-plus miles way – it’s too expensive, and it’s too restrictive.”
— Elizabeth, rural health nurse practitioner in Bedias, Texas