With committee appointments made for the Texas House, TMA took to the stand to advocate for crucial public health programs and bolstering the physician workforce in the rapidly growing state – and in the Senate, welcomed efforts to improve nutrition and exercise.
Budget matters
“Vital public health efforts protect Texans’ health through effective disease control, prevention, and treatment,” said Lauren Gambill, MD, in her remarks to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Article II – the part of the budget bill that provides funding for the state’ public health programs.
While grateful for funding to the Department of State Health Services, including that for a public health laboratory, the Austin pediatrician requested to reinstate funding for vaccines “previously removed from the program due to funding constraints, including the pneumococcal, varicella, and human papillomavirus vaccines.”
Other funding requests would:
- Reduce infant morbidity and mortality due to congenital syphilis,
- Support robust regional and local public health services,
- Fund public awareness and adult Texas Tobacco Quitline services to help prevent tobacco-related cancers, and
- Support the Maternal Mortality Review System and funding other maternal and child health data projects.
Zeke Silva, MD, chair of TMA’s Council on Legislation, also spoke on Article II, emphasizing the importance of state funding in protecting Texans’ health.
“Our organizations are committed to improving the health of all Texans,” the San Antonio radiologist said. “But to achieve this goal, physicians rely on having robust, effective, and efficient safety-net programs – Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, women’s health programs, and behavioral health services – all of which join to form the backbone of Texas’ health care delivery system.”
As such, TMA requests a 10% increase in Medicaid payments, funding Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Children’s Mental Health Strategic Plan recommendations, and expansion of outpatient mental health service sites to all Local Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authorities.
Supporting workforce efforts
Rodney Young, MD, a member of TMA’s Board of Trustees and the past chair of the association’s Council on Socioeconomics, went before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Article III, concerning education in the state, to address graduate medical education (GME) in testimony.
“TMA projects about 200 more first-year residency positions will be needed by 2029 to maintain the state’s target ratio of 1.1 to 1,” the Amarillo family physician said. “Not only is the state GME grant program at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board vitally important for achieving this goal, but also the GME planning grants are needed to help identify new teaching hospitals.”
Citing Texas’ nation-leading status in population gains, he recommended support for other workforce-building programs, including the Rural Resident Training Program, the Physician Education Loan Repayment Assistance Program, the Family Practice Residency Program, and the Joint Admission Medical Program.
To additionally bolster the state’s growing workforce, Dr. Silva explained to legislators the need to better fund the Texas Medical Board to help meet the state’s physician licensing needs.
TMA also filed written testimony supporting continuation of Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas funding, as “for every dollar invested through CPRIT in 2024, Texas recouped more than $426 in returns from treatment cost savings, economic activity, real gross product output, income, sales, and tax receipts,” and medicine hopes to “sustain our state’s momentum in groundbreaking cancer research, prevention, and treatment.”
Supporting healthier Texans
In the Senate, TMA weighed in on Senate Bill 25, which seeks to promote healthier living and reduce chronic disease by improving nutrition and physical activity for Texans.
“As physicians, we see firsthand how our patients’ health is impacted by their diet and activity levels,” said Maria Monge, MD, member of TMA’s Council on Science and Public Health, testifying for TMA and Texas Pediatric Society to the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.
The Austin pediatric adolescent medicine physician lauded the bill for its increase in school physical activity requirements for middle school students (grades 6-8). This includes not denying recess and physical education class as punishments.
TMA also welcomes the establishment of a Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee to assess and improve the dietary needs of Texans, particularly “the committee’s charge to study the role ultra-processed foods have in chronic health conditions,” including an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and dementia.
Regarding the bill’s proposed mandate on nutrition CME, Dr. Monge recommended that apply only to “physicians who offer nutritional and dietary counsel to their patients upon time of re-licensure and to count towards formal education credits for all physicians.”
Also in the Senate, Dr. Silva on behalf of TMA will soon testify in support of Senate Bill 815, which would curtail health plans to use of artificial intelligence to make decisions on prior authorization.
Follow TMA’s advocacy efforts during this legislative session, and review its priorities, centered around access to care, practice viability, and physician autonomy.
Phil West
Associate Editor
(512) 370-1394
phil.west[at]texmed[dot]org
Phil West is a writer and editor whose publications include the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Austin American-Statesman, and San Antonio Express-News. He earned a BA in journalism from the University of Washington and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin’s James A. Michener Center for Writers. He lives in Austin with his wife, children, and a trio of free-spirited dogs.