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BROWNSVILLE, Texas – State Sen. Morgan LaMantia says she is working with U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez to bring more primary care residency slots to South Texas.
LaMantia participated in a panel discussion about a range of healthcare issues at New Horizon Health Center. The center’s CEO, Jason Wallace, organized the event to celebrate National Health Center Week.
Asked by Wallace to give some examples of how her office is working with that of Congressman Gonzalez, LaMantia said:
“We have a very high level of communication and we’ve been working with Congressman Gonzalez on a number of different topics. Both of us recognize and many people in the state legislature recognize that health centers are really the key to solving our medical issues and our accessibility and affordability. A lot more focus and a lot more funding needs to come to you guys,” LaMantia said, referring to New Horizon.
“We’re also working with Congressman Gonzalez to work on the residency program issues. A lot of residency programs when it comes to doctors are capped by the federal government at certain numbers. Right now, in Texas, there are only 334 residency slots for primary care. And given that we’re ranked 48th in primary care when it comes to) patient (to doctor) ratio throughout the entire country, we definitely need to address this.”
LaMantia said around 45 percent young medical doctors leave Texas once they have completed their residency program.
“That is something that we want to change. We want to have more residency slots. We want to be able to bring more doctors to South Texas, and we also want to keep the doctors that are from our backyards,” LaMantia said.
Mental Health
Another topic covered during the panel discussion was mental health.
“After the pandemic mental health became really got highlighted about how much disparity we have in mental health providers. So that’s come to the forefront and (we’re having) a lot of discussions to try and solve that problem.”
Sen. LaMantia said she recognized she was “preaching to the choir” when discussing mental health with fellow panelists and those in the audience.
“Mental health has always been needed in South Texas and in every one of our communities. But it was a pandemic that finally highlighted that and really shone a light on the issues we’re having in regards to making sure that we have providers and access to care,” LaMantia said.
“And so, we’re trying to make a big concerted effort and a big push to try to get more mental health providers throughout the state and especially in our rural areas. And in South Texas where we are in mental health desert.”
Asked by Wallace what else she is working on, LaMantia said: “We’ve always been fighting and trying to help with chronic diseases like diabetes, and now that we have UTRGV and the medical school here, it’s opened a lot of doors and hopefully this will get us more specialists and providers down here in South Texas where we need them the most.”
In addition to this, La Mantia said, maternal and women’s health is “incredibly” important.
“There was a study and a report that just came out that said Texas is ranked 50th, including Washington, DC and throughout the entire country, when it comes to women’s health care. And it gets worse when we come down to South Texas and that’s one (area) that we really need to focus on and work on as well,” LaMantia said.
“So, I would say that there are many issues. I don’t think anyone is more important than the other and so we’re trying to look at a broad spectrum. But really try to focus (on the) needs (of South Texas) and how we can attract specialists, how we can attract nurses, how we get attract so many different medical providers down here because our biggest problem is just access to care.”
Medicaid Expansion
Wallace also asked LaMantia to give an update on efforts to expand Medicaid.
“So, at the state level, every year, there’s a number of Senators and House Reps who always file a bill to expand Medicaid. We have not seen a lot of movement. There really isn’t a lot of movement to expand Medicaid right now,” LaMantia responded.
“However, (we are) chipping away at this so last session, we expanded Medicaid for pregnant women after they’ve given birth from six months to 12 months. So now it matches with the Medicaid expansion requirements or rules in that regard.”
Unfortunately, LaMantia said, likeminded state legislators cannot get Medicaid expansion “in one fell swoop” right now. So, she said, they are going ‘step by step” to get it done.
“You know, with the Medicaid unwinding that happened last year or a year and a half ago, about two million people came off Medicaid. If we were able to expand Medicaid it would mean three million people would be able to have access to healthcare coverage. Now, we’re still talking about Texas having almost 5 million people who are uninsured.”
LaMantia called that a “staggering number.”
She added: “We have the highest insured rate in the country. Cameron County, I believe, is just shy of 30 percent uninsured. We need to look at other mechanisms so that we can offer insurance for those people that fall between the gaps, between Medicaid and private insurance.”
Editor’s Note: Here is an audio recording of the New Horizon panel discussion on health. CEO Jason Wallace is the moderator. State Sen. LaMantia answers the questions. A short video about community health centers is played at the beginning.
The post LaMantia: Congressman Gonzalez and I are working to bring more primary care residency programs to South Texas appeared first on Rio Grande Guardian.
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