Viewpoints: Texas Must Close Medicaid Coverage Gap; A Glimpse Into Texas Abortion Care After SB 8

Houston Chronicle: My Ingrown Nail And The Medicaid Gap - Essential Workers Deserve Health Care, Too
It feels like sticking my foot into a hot hornet’s nest. Right on time, the pain shoots up my entire leg, making it hard to walk. Each agonizing step is a reminder of a minor health issue that should have been easily remedied all those years ago, but wasn’t. All because I, like so many others in Texas, didn’t have access to affordable health care. For people like me with chronic pain, standing can be excruciating. This pain limits the hours I can work and activities I can participate in with family and friends. Yet, throughout the pandemic, I have regularly reported for a job as a grocery store clerk, ready to provide the same level of care for my customers that I’ve always shown despite the now-added danger of contracting the virus myself. No matter what happens, someone has to do the essential but risky jobs to keep our state going. I’ve felt a sense of duty and pride in serving my community during such a terrible time. (Amber Ayala, 9/30)

Los Angeles Times: What It’s Like Operating A Texas Abortion Clinic Now 
It’s been nearly a month since our country’s cruelest abortion ban went into effect. As of midnight Sept. 1, most Texans seeking abortion care have been left powerless and afraid. Providing abortion care in Texas was difficult before, but now we are living in a dystopian nightmare. Let me share what it was like on the night of Aug. 31 at Whole Woman’s Health of Fort Worth. In the hours leading up to midnight, the waiting room was filled with patients hoping to get an abortion before Senate Bill 8 went into effect. Staffers and doctors had been working since 7:30 a.m., and they were still there providing abortions until 11:56 p.m. Outside, the antiabortion protesters kept us under tight surveillance all day long. Come nightfall, they shined flashlights into patients’ cars, the clinic and the parking lot. Inside the clinic, there was love, support, bravery, integrity and deep commitment to human rights. We held out hope that the Supreme Court would bar the law from going into effect. But that justice never came. (Amy Hagstrom Miller, 9/29)

Chicago Tribune: Lowering The Age For Medicare Eligibility Is A Lousy Idea We Can’t Afford 
Congress is hashing out the details of a $3.5 trillion spending package that could lower Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 60. The proposal would severely disrupt not just the Medicare program but the broader market for private insurance. And it would do so at a great cost. (Janet Trautwein, 9/29)

Stat: Covid-19 Reveals Hazards Of Blocking Physician-Owned Hospitals
Covid-19 caught the U.S. flatfooted. With supply shortages, the availability of intensive care unit beds, staffing challenges with nursing shortages, and physician burnout from witnessing thousands of deaths in isolation, the pandemic laid bare the amount of improvement needed in the hospital sector. Looking back, the country would have been on better footing if it had made different decisions about competition a decade ago when the hospital industry successfully lobbied to prevent physicians from owning and operating hospitals and billing Medicare. (Brian J. Miller and Jesse Ehrenfeld, 9/30)

Houston Chronicle: Health Care Barriers Harm Patients - And The Providers Who Care For Them
During Texas’ three legislative sessions this year, our leaders have focused on restricting voting, health care services and free speech. Meanwhile, they have again failed to act to improve health care access for their constituents despite bipartisan support for the latest bill, Live Well Texas (HB 3871/SB 117). Their priorities are gravely misplaced. Lawmakers in opposition may not realize that barriers to health care access have negative impacts not only on low-income Texans, but also on the providers who struggle to serve them. (Brandon Altillo, 9/29)