{"id":450769,"date":"2026-09-29T04:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T04:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/450769\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T04:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T04:20:12","slug":"the-future-of-texas-healthcare-depends-on-us-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/450769\/","title":{"rendered":"The future of Texas healthcare depends on us \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a> <\/p>\n

As of 2024, over 5 million<\/a> Texans are uninsured. Millions of low-income people rely<\/a> on Medicaid, a form of insurance that provides low-cost healthcare sponsored by federal and state governments. Around 200,000<\/a> Texans are still waiting for their Medicaid application to be approved. Nonprofit hospitals provided $14.9 billion<\/a> of care to patients who could not afford treatment without coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This issue isn\u2019t new, and it\u2019s only getting worse.<\/p>\n

UT\u2019s insurance plan for students costs around $2,800 to $3,400 annually. This cost is not included in a domestic student\u2019s tuition. Well, isn\u2019t this exactly why we have Medicaid?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because Texas is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid, low-income students do not qualify. They would have to meet another requirement<\/a>, such as being pregnant, responsible for a dependent child, living with a qualified disability or being a former foster<\/a> child.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas\u2019 systems are very old. They\u2019re very outdated in terms of processing applications, determining eligibility based on our strict eligibility criteria,\u201d said Kellen Kane, a public affairs assistant professor. \u201cWhen the One Big Beautiful Bill came around and changed the recertification requirements for programs like Medicaid and SNAP, Texas has a huge demand because we\u2019re a massive state with a lot of people who rely on these programs. But now our systems are becoming overloaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solving these problems starts with changing policy, but some believe there should be no changes<\/a> made. The federal government supplies 90% of the cost for expansion, while states cover 10%. Policymakers argue that this could potentially harm state budgeting. These concerns are valid to an extent, but as thousands of Texans lose access to healthcare, the benefits outweigh the costs completely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe basically have a sickness system,\u201d said Kristie Loescher, a business professor of instruction who specializes in healthcare systems management. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n

These systems have been in place for decades, and it would take decades to reform them. So really, what can students do? Well, there are 53<\/a> Federally Qualified Health Centers in Austin. FQHCs are community clinics that treat underserved populations who cannot afford healthcare otherwise. Even taking a couple hours out of your weekend to volunteer with a health center can help address the healthcare shortage. If you prefer to help on campus, UT has over 40 health advocacy clubs. Most importantly, students should take advantage of their proximity to the Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can testify (and) share personal experience,\u201d said John Rickert, a junior business management major and an active student advocate for healthcare issues in Texas. \u201cMost people don\u2019t realize it\u2019s completely open to the public. You don\u2019t have to have any credentials, any requirements, any background, any experience. You can just go tell what happened to you when you went to the doctor\u2019s office, and those are some of the most powerful stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although we arguably live in one of the most polarized political climates in history, a 2023 Texas Politics Project poll<\/a> found that Medicaid expansion is supported by 63% of \u201cstrong Republicans\u201d and 91% of \u201cstrong Democrats.\u201d At the end of the day, healthcare affects us all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Messner is a public affairs freshman from Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As of 2024, over 5 million Texans are uninsured. Millions of low-income people rely on Medicaid, a form…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-450769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}