1-1     By:  Maxey, Capelo (Senate Sponsor - Ellis)           H.C.R. No. 84
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 30, 2001;
 1-3     May 1, 2001, read first time and referred to Committee on Health
 1-4     and Human Services; May 4, 2001, reported favorably by the
 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 4, 2001, sent to printer.)
 1-6                         HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-7           WHEREAS, Federally funded community-based safety-net
 1-8     programs, which  are specifically designed to assist low-income
 1-9     persons without health insurance and those who live in areas that
1-10     lack health care services, play a significant role in the delivery
1-11     of medical care and related services to the large number of
1-12     Americans who cannot afford health insurance; and
1-13           WHEREAS, Texas' large size and shared border with Mexico are
1-14     geographical factors that present the state with unique challenges
1-15     in serving its residents and increase the importance of all types
1-16     of safety-net health care programs; of a total of 254 Texas
1-17     counties, 176 entire counties and an additional 47 partial counties
1-18     are federally designated as medically underserved areas; these
1-19     areas include all but one of the counties along the Rio Grande; and
1-20           WHEREAS, These medically underserved areas are characterized
1-21     by a high percentage of elderly residents, high poverty rates, high
1-22     infant mortality rates, and a lower ratio of primary care providers
1-23     than the national average; furthermore, these areas typically serve
1-24     working poor, minority members, foreign born, or noncitizens who
1-25     rely on community-based safety-net programs for medical care; and
1-26           WHEREAS, Federal safety-net programs are particularly
1-27     important to the four U.S.-Mexico border states, including Texas,
1-28     which rank among the six states with the highest percentage of
1-29     uninsured persons under 65 partly because of the large numbers of
1-30     immigrant households among their populations; such households are
1-31     more than twice as likely to lack health insurance as are
1-32     households of native-born citizens, and a recent study found that
1-33     immigrants and children who arrived between 1994 and 1998 account
1-34     for 59 percent of the growth of the uninsured; and
1-35           WHEREAS, Community health centers are a cost-effective way to
1-36     provide primary and preventive care to populations lacking medical
1-37     care and can reduce the inappropriate use of emergency rooms and
1-38     hospitalizations; and
1-39           WHEREAS, Increasing the number of community health centers
1-40     would be a tremendous benefit for those Texans living in poor and
1-41     underserved communities as well as for the 56 percent of Texas'
1-42     noncitizen residents who are uninsured by providing greater access
1-43     to regular sources of both primary care and preventive health
1-44     services and allowing medical services to target common health
1-45     problems in these populations; now, therefore, be it
1-46           RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas
1-47     hereby respectfully request the Congress of the United States to
1-48     expand the number of and funding for federally funded community
1-49     health centers and other federal community-based safety-net
1-50     programs specifically directed to poor and medically underserved
1-51     communities in states with the highest numbers of uninsured
1-52     residents; and, be it further
1-53           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
1-54     copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
1-55     the speaker of the house of representatives, and to the president
1-56     of the senate of the United States Congress, and to all members of
1-57     the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
1-58     resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
1-59     memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.
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