Overview

Hardworking Texans are struggling to meet the skyrocketing costs of health care. Texas has some of the highest rates in the country and health insurance is so expensive that one in four Texans can’t afford it at all. Year after year, the cost of insurance rises while the insurance industry reaps in record profits, denies coverage to people based on their health status and bases their decisions on data that nobody else can access. For too long, the state of Texas has allowed the insurance industry to promote their interests at the expense of health care consumers.  It is time for Texas legislators to give the Texas Department of Insurance the power it needs to protect the public from industry abuses.

Texans that do have medical insurance are seeing their out-of-pocket expenses skyrocket while their health coverage and access options shrink. Over the past fifteen years, increases in health care costs have steadily outpaced both inflation and growth in per capita GDP.

Texas currently faces a very real and very threatening health care crisis. For this reason, TexPIRG has begun leading efforts in the state to address health care reform and is involved in a groundswell of activity to educate the public about the health care crisis the state faces and to rally support from lawmakers who must enact commonsense reforms now!

TexPIRG is advocating for health insurance that is more affordable for Texans and that offers adequate access and coverage. We're demanding that the insurance industry be made more transparent and that state legislators make sure that Texans receive the access to health care that they both pay for and deserve. We are also pushing for the expansion of plans that will achieve more coverage for uninsured children. We believe that all Texans, regardless of where they work, how much they earn or how old they are, deserve health care options which are affordable, accessible and provide real coverage.