A new tax? Hospital District – the pros and the cons
Tue, 2014-10-28 19:19
News Staff
By G. Romero Wendorf
To say there’s a lot riding on Hidalgo County Proposition 1 and the creation of a new hospital district this election would be an understatement, considering what’s at risk: our tax dollars and perhaps better access to healthcare. Not to mention our sanity? Sanity? Sure. Have you ever spent most of the night in one of the local hospital ERs, waiting for one of the overworked hospital staff – aides, nurses, doctors – to care for you or your sick spouse, parent or child? On most nights, it’s standing room only. Patience, not patients, is at a minimum. “Go ahead and park dad on the stretcher in the ER because there are currently no hospital beds available.” The reasons for those long waits inside local ERs become pretty obvious when you look at Hidalgo County’s demographics. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hidalgo County has the largest number of uninsured people in the entire country, 38.9 percent, with a booming population of 775,000 (2010 census). That number, by the way, is up by 35 percent in only 10 short years. The poorer the people, the fewer visits they make to the regular doc, using the ER instead as their primary care physician.
Read the entire story on the e-Edition of our newspaper. http://www.etypeservices.com/Advance%20News%20JournalID455/