Join us: Senate Hispanic Caucus summit and NCLR Medicaid expansion roundtable

I’m excited to report on two events taking place next week.

— On Friday, Oct. 24, my office, in coordination with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), will present a roundtable discussion on Medicaid expansion. The NCLR has produced a report titled “Closing the Health Care Coverage Gap in Texas: A Latino Perspective,” which has particular relevance to our community. The event is noon-2 at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

— The next day, Saturday, Oct 25, my office, together with the Senate Hispanic Caucus (SHC), for which I am the chairman, will host the SHC El Paso Regional Summit. The event is 9-2 at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

NCLR Roundtable

Texas has the largest population of uninsured individuals of any state in the country. The state’s six million uninsured individuals represent 24 percent of the state’s population and include 1.2 million children and 3.3 million Latinos. At the same time, Texas has some of the nation’s highest rates of poverty, childhood obesity, and chronic diseases.

NCLR has hosted similar events in San Antonio, Houston, and the Valley.

As the report notes: “The current failure to accept federal funds to expand Medicaid in Texas under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or to seek an alternative model to provide health insurance to low-income Texans, is detrimental to the state and will have a particularly adverse impact on Latinos, who comprise around 50 percent of the state’s uninsured.”

The authority to advance Medicaid expansion in Texas or institute an alternative approach rests with the state’s governor and legislative leaders. Many of us on both sides of the aisle tried to come up with a “Texas solution” to the uninsured, but the state leadership, in their obsession over fighting the president, refused to support a proposal from their own party, let alone do the right thing and simply expand Medicaid.

I’m looking forward to this important discussion next week, and to working on a solution again during the 84th Legislature.

SHC El Paso Regional Summit

The goal of the SHC regional summits is to solicit feedback on the recommendations gathered by policy taskforces that were formed last October during the statewide Latino Policy Summit at the Capitol, which drew more than 150 people. The taskforces focused on education, health care, immigration, civic engagement, and economic opportunities. Later this year, we will present all of the collected feedback to the legislators who are members of the SHC and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC).

To date, we have had summits in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas. The El Paso event will be followed by summits in Houston (Nov. 15) and McAllen (Nov. 22). Participants at the past summits have been advocates, students, academics, government officials, and other community leaders.

The goals of the regional events are to:

— Familiarize people with and solicit feedback for the taskforce recommendations

— Bring stories to light that may end up being strong testimony or talking points for legislation

We look forward to your participation at both events!