Dear friend,

Our country’s health care system is sick. Yet, in spite of the staggering burden pressing upon families, small businesses, corporations and the public sector, the transition to a sustainable health care system continues to meet intense resistance.

This week, I’d like to share a few ways that my office is doing its part to help speed local and state efforts aimed at increasing access to health care.

First, I will work to advance the development of a freestanding health sciences university for El Paso. A few weeks ago, the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents voted to begin the process of establishing a health sciences university in El Paso. The next step is to get approval from the Texas Legislature when it convenes in January 2013.

The new health sciences university would include the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing, and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, which is slated to open this fall. The El Paso-based health sciences university would become the fourth institution in the Texas Tech University System, which currently includes Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Angelo State University. This is exciting news that promises new educational opportunities for El Paso’s youth, a great boost for the Medical Center of the Americas, and a tremendous impact of billions of dollars on our region’s economy.

Second, El Paso’s citizens have been at work, too. The District 29 Health Care Advisory Committee has assessed priorities, recommending that we focus on the following:

• Advancing the Program for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE) model, which allows many frail elderly patients to remain independent and live in their own homes and communities instead of having to move to a nursing home.

We are fortunate to have one of the few approved PACE programs in the state in El Paso — Bienvivir Senior Health Services. Bienvivir is a community-based program developed in 1986 to specifically and exclusively render services to the frail elderly of El Paso. Key components of the PACE model are the comprehensive health care centers where the elderly person receives most of his or her medical and social services, and the interdisciplinary team of health care professionals that develop a care plan and provide direct care services.

• Proposing legislation to require the inclusion of gerontology in curricula for nurses and physicians so that we have a workforce prepared to deal with the unique needs of Baby Boomers, 10,000 of whom reach age 65 every day.

• Expanding the scope of practice for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, whom studies have shown can safely provide primary care services, to increase access to health care.

Third, I am committed to collaborating with my colleagues at the National Conference of State Legislatures on an action plan we developed at the Identifying State Health Priorities to Ensure Healthy Families conference in Denver. That plan includes:

• Increasing access to care by increasing the number of Texans who have health care coverage and reducing health care professional shortages throughout the state, especially along the border and in rural areas.

• Redesigning the health care delivery and payment system with a focus on providing integrated, quality care.

• Increasing state support for services for women and children, including reducing teenage pregnancy and increasing rates of immunizations and breastfeeding.

Finally, I am working with the El Paso Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) on a groundbreaking conference, Mano y Corazón: Binational Conference of Multicultural Health Care Solutions. This landmark learning event will be Oct. 1-2 in El Paso. You can learn more about the conference at manoycorazonhealthcareconference.com.

El Paso is rapidly emerging as a regional leader where the best practices in culturally-fluent health care delivery are developed, discussed and disseminated. Mano y Corazón is a new forum where nurses, physicians, allied health professionals, promotoras and policymakers will gather to learn from one another.

Joining us at the conference will be Don Berwick, M.D., former Administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). Berwick, who recently was named a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is a staunch defender of the Affordable Care Act, and in a March interview with the Washington Post said that “I firmly believe that the best way to make care affordable is improve it.”

In addition to a special Behavioral Health session with Gizane Indart, PsyD, a ChildTrauma Academy Fellow, the conference will also feature a half-day work session on The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Challenges abound, but a New Texas calls us to bold initiatives and unwavering commitment to build economic opportunities that offer every one of us a fair shot at pathways with promise. Education and health care contain those pathways and my office will keep these issues at the forefront of our efforts.

About that election

Amazingly, the long-awaited primary election has finally come and gone. I’d like to take the opportunity to congratulate all those incumbents and candidates elected outright to their respective positions because they drew no challengers or because they have no Republican opponents. Among these, a hearty congratulations to my colleagues in the House of Representatives, Joe Pickett, Marisa Marquez, Naomi Gonzalez, and our newest member, Mary Gonzalez!

Our Democratic Nominee in House District 78, Joe Moody will be facing Republican incumbent, Dee Margo. We will be seeing much of each other on the campaign trail as I face my Republican opponent once again in November. Let me also congratulate our Democratic nominee to the U.S. House of Representatives, Beto O’Rourke, and to express my sincere gratitude to Congressman Silvestre Reyes for his many years of dedicated service to our community.

To those candidates in run-offs, I wish you luck and perseverance as you continue on your quest to the latest run-off date we have ever had, July 31st. Speaking of July 31st, the run-off election will also decide the election of precinct chairs who comprise the membership of the El Paso County Democratic Party Executive Committee.

The deadline candidates to file for precinct chair happens to be at 6 p.m. today, June 1. Our local party is always in need of strong candidates to serve on the Executive Committee. Check out the list of current candidates here.

Sincerely,