Once again President Obama is making headlines for spurring congress to move ahead with healthcare legislation, but as politicians debate the health care crisis is worsening. Few places are feeling the pinch more than Houston, TX which is ironic since it's the home of the Texas Medical Center, the largest health care facility in the world. But only a few blocks away are literally thousands of uninsured Houston residents who are effectively outside the medical system.
Today nearly 30% of Harris County residents have no health insurance due to a combination of factors. First of all, a never ending flood of immigrants coming from our longest border with Mexico has lead to nearly 6% of Houston's population now being illegal immigrants. Texas in general is the fastest growing state in the country with a growth rate approximately 4 times the country as a whole. Combine this with thousands of refugees who left New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and there it isn't hard to see why the situation is quite grim.
Health insurance has typically been offered through employers, but as with the rest of the country Houston's primary driver of employment growth has been small businesses of less than 50 employees. The recent credit crunch has been particularly hard on small businesses and many have been forced to make hard choices to keep the doors open. As health coverage is dropped by employers, those effected often don't have the knowledge or resources to find good alternatives to get themselves insured.
When you consider that the metropolitan area has a population of about 5.7 million people according to the 2008 census estimate meaning there are about 1.7 million people without insurance Houston has a huge problem. In fact, with hospitals beginning to close overflowing, unprofitable emergency rooms it may become the poster child for why we desperately need major reform in health care services.
Michael Peterson is the owner of FNN Inc and has been helping consumers find financial related answers online since 1996. For further information on how you can reduce your health insurance costs visit HSA Rules.
