Texans enjoy the reputation of independent, resourceful individuals, with no need for heavy-handed government oversight. Despite this perception, Texas is the fifth-most-regulated state in the country, with 274,469 state regulatory ordinances. Other states’ numbers range from 420,434 (California) to 31,497 (Idaho). Although Texas, as the second-most-populated state, has the fourth-fewest statutes per capita, it still suffers from regulatory accumulation and would benefit from reversing this trend.
This proliferation of restrictions hampers economic growth, raises costs, and stifles technological innovation. This causes particular damage in the healthcare sector, where the effects are life-threatening. Texas has the fifth-highest healthcare per capita expenditures in the nation, with the highest percentage of adults of any state failing to seek medical care due to costs. Its robust medical scientific community is also unable to reach its potential under these conditions.
Instead of seeing this tangle of unnecessary healthcare edicts merely as an obstacle, Texas residents should look at it as an opportunity. With more awareness of the problem and an understanding of solutions, they can proactively improve their entire healthcare system to better represent their state’s values.
HEAL Texans Act
Physicians, nurse practitioners, and lawmakers in Texas recently united to reverse rules preventing nurse practitioners from engaging in the very work they are trained and licensed to perform. Last year, Senator Cesar Blanco reintroduced SB 9-1-1, the HEAL Texans Act, which eliminates harmful and arbitrary restrictions on their scope of practice within the state. Texas voters and legislators can help increase their healthcare access by expressing their support for this measure, which already has widespread professional approval.
Cutting Red Tape To Save Small Facilities
In 2023, the U.S. House Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations held a hearing called “Burdensome Red Tape: Overregulation in Health Care and the Impact on Small Businesses.” Subcommittee Chairman Beth Van Duyne, who represents the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, quoted an American Hospital Association (AHA) report indicating an average community hospital, hosting 160 beds, spent $7.6 million each year on regulatory compliance efforts.
At best, this increases operating costs, which hospitals pass on to patients. At worst, it forces smaller facilities to close. In the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic protocols, 22,000 privately operating physicians closed their own businesses and joined larger hospitals. Unnecessary restrictions that pose only speed bumps for larger hospitals can prove death blows to smaller, rural units. The many patients reliant on these oases in healthcare deserts need to make their needs known.
Health Savings Account (HSA) Expansion
Van Duyne also just introduced the HSA Modernization Act, which eases the requirements to access HSA account privileges and increases the allowable contribution limits. An HSA is a tax-free account where patients can save money to apply to future medical expenditures. It enables patients to pay low rates for high-deductible plans while keeping tax-free money accessible in case of an emergency. Many people find an HSA far more efficient than other insurance methods, and it allows them to choose the savings option ideal for their individual circumstances.
Texas has immense, untapped opportunities in health care. With a thoughtful and targeted removal of needless bureaucratic hoops, it will fulfill its obvious potential to best serve its patients.