Cross posted at Texas Kaos.
Yesterday in Houston nearly 2000 folks came to Reliant Stadium for, in some cases, desperately needed medical treatment. Shamefully, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country. The story is particularly ugly in Houston where 1 in 3 adults are uninsured.
Dr. Oz who runs the free health clinic compared the number of uninsured, untreated people as a national disaster comparable to that of Hurricane Katrina. According to him, Houston and the rest of Texas, a health care Katrina happens everyday.
Despite the shameful statistics on the lack of health coverage, our elected U.S. Republican lawmakers John Cornyn, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and in my case, John Culberson (Houston-7), continue to wage war against health care reform. As with Katrina while the world watched, Republicans showed they were not in the least bit concerned about the hurricane's victims, some of whom horribly drowned and others who, to this very day, are displaced. Republican behavior with health care reform is exactly the same. The message: Let 'em eat Advil or drop dead. It ain't our problem. Me and mine are just fine.
When not running free health clinics Dr. Oz is a professor of cardiac medicine at Columbia University. He also hosts a TV show about health issues at 3:00 p.m., M-F. Needless to say, the doctor's show is very popular.
Below are examples of just two uninsured who desperately needed Dr. Oz's help.
A man who arrived later in the day, Anthony DeLane, was whisked away by ambulance to Ben Taub General Hospital. A diabetic ulcer on his foot was so infected that it had opened up and exposed bone, said Dr. G. Bobby Kapur, a Taub emergency physician and Baylor College of Medicine professor. Without quick care, the infection could have spread into his bloodstream or his leg.
"If we don't get to it fast, instead of losing a toe, he may lose a foot or a whole leg," said Kapur, one of the medical directors of Saturday's clinic. "He had not been able to get care for five years because he doesn't have insurance. He's self-employed."
Fourteen-month-old Analeigha Rivera turned out to be one of Oz's youngest patients.
Mother Victoria Rivera learned that her baby has a potentially life-threatening heart murmur.
"Dr. Oz said that where her hole is at, it can cause heart failure and cause her lungs to harden up. It could cause her to stop breathing," said Rivera, 25, of Freeport, who brought all five of her children for checkups. "Her Medicaid was dropped when she turned 1. ... We're looking for a clinic around who will take her."
Ron Cookston, executive director of Gateway to Care, said he spoke to an alarming number of middle-class people who don't know how to navigate the free and reduced-cost health care system.
"The most important thing is for people to have a place where they go to the doctor on a regular basis that is not an emergency room," Cookston said. "We've seen people from Chambers, Liberty and Galveston. People have come from a long distance."
How many more folks have to suffer before Congress can grow two major body parts: a heart and cojones.
Let's give Texas Republicans the hell they deserve for ignoring the desperate plights of so many of their constituents.
Contact information:
SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4304
202-224-5922
202-224-0776 (FAX)
202-224-5903 (TDD)
SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
961 Federal Building
300 East 8th Street
Austin, Texas 78701
512-916-5834
512-916-5839 (FAX)
SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
10440 N. Central Expressway
Suite 1160
Dallas, Texas 75231
214-361-3500
214-361-3502 (FAX)
SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
1919 Smith Street
Suite 800
Houston, Texas 77002
713-653-3456
713-209-3459 (FAX)
SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
3133 General Hudnell Drive
Suite 120
San Antonio, Texas 78226
210-340-2885
210-349-6753 (FAX)
SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
500 Chestnut Street
Suite 1570
Abilene, Texas 79602
325-676-2839
325-676-2937 (FAX)
SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
1906 G East Tyler St
Harlingen, Texas 78550
956-425-2253
956-412-1468 (FAX)
John Cornyn:
Washington DC
517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Main: 202-224-2934
Fax: 202-228-2856
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Senate Hart Building
Southeast Texas
5300 Memorial Drive
Suite 980
Houston, TX 77007
Main: 713-572-3337
Fax: 713-572-3777
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Houston, Texas Office
South Texas
222 East Van Buren
Suite 404
Harlingen, TX 78550
Main: 956-423-0162
Fax: 956-423-0193
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Harlingen, Texas Office
West Texas
Wells Fargo Center
1500 Broadway, Suite 1230
Lubbock, TX 79401
Main: 806-472-7533
Fax: 806-472-7536
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Lubbock, Texas Office
South Central Texas
600 Navarro
Suite 210
San Antonio, TX 78205
Main: 210-224-7485
Fax: 210-224-8569
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San Antonio, Texas Office
Central Texas
Chase Tower
221 West Sixth Street
Suite 1530
Austin, TX 78701
Main: 512-469-6034
Fax: 512-469-6020
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Austin, Texas Office
East Texas
First Place
100 E. Ferguson Street, Suite 1004
Tyler, TX 75702
Main: 903-593-0902
Fax: 903-593-0920
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Tyler, Texas Office
North Texas
5001 Spring Valley Road, Suite 1125 E
Dallas, TX 75244
Main: 972-239-1310
Fax: 972-239-2110
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