{"id":10489,"date":"2019-07-05T17:55:05","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T17:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10489"},"modified":"2019-07-05T17:55:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T17:55:05","slug":"texans-paying-for-health-care-is-toughest-living-expense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=10489","title":{"rendered":"Texans: Paying for Health Care is Toughest Living Expense"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

A new survey from the Episcopal Health Foundation finds 60% of Texas say health care is their biggest household expense. Photo: AdobeStock<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0More than half of all Texans say they struggle on a daily basis to afford health care, according to a new survey. The findings come from the\u00a02019 Texas Health Policy Survey<\/a>\u00a0from the Houston-based Episcopal Health Foundation.<\/p>\n

Brian Sasser, chief communications officer with the foundation, said the poll illustrates a major health-care crisis in which even those Texans who carry health insurance, because of high deductibles and copayments, are having trouble accessing and affording care.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexans are telling us that health care is now the toughest living expense to afford. That includes other than rent, mortgage and monthly utilities and transportation costs, even food,\u201d Sasser said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of a stark reminder of the crisis in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sasser said faced with costs they can\u2019t afford, 60% of Texans said they or someone in their household skipped or postponed health-care needs. He said those surveyed reported they sometimes skipped dental care or checkups, postponed needed medical care, skipped a test or treatment, didn\u2019t fill a prescription, or cut pills in half or skipped doses. He added that many people reported problems getting mental-health care.<\/p>\n

Sasser said the survey found, not surprisingly, low-income Texans are hit the hardest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have health insurance and you have a stable job, cost is tough already,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t have health insurance, you don\u2019t have a stable job, you are low income, it just compounds the fact that not only is health care hard to afford, but it\u2019s hard to access that care without insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sasser said Texas lawmakers had numerous opportunities during the recent legislative session to take steps toward resolving the problem, such as expanding Medicaid coverage or funding a statewide health plan. But the body failed to improve care.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur polls are telling us two things: One, that they\u2019re having trouble affording and accessing health care; and that, two, the state has a big role in helping solve that problem,\u201d Sasser said. \u201cAnd so far, not much has been done to address it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Episcopal Health Foundation serves 11 million Texans in a 57-county area in the southeast part of the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson HOUSTON \u2013\u00a0More than half of all Texans say they struggle on a daily basis to afford health care, according to a new survey. The findings come from the\u00a02019 Texas Health Policy Survey\u00a0from the Houston-based Episcopal Health Foundation. Brian Sasser, chief communications officer with the foundation, said the poll illustrates a major health-care […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10491,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10489\/revisions\/10491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}