Rather than floats and beads this Mardi Gras, a parade of white coats took to Austin for First Tuesday at the Capitol March 4 to lobby lawmakers with personal stories of how to improve Texas’ health care.
As Texas Medical Association and TMA Alliance members fortified with king cake at a standing-room-only briefing, Jenny Shepherd, TMAA president and chair of First Tuesdays at the Capitol, kicked off the proceedings with a reminder of the event’s genesis 22 years ago.
“The alliance knows the power of a good idea and the power of a legislative relationship, and it’s because of that we’re here today.”
Founded by TMAA in 2003, First Tuesdays at the Capitol is TMA’s signature advocacy event, held on the first Tuesday of each month when the Texas Legislature is in session, during which physicians and their allies can relay to legislators their concerns and provide a human face to TMA’s legislative priorities. The March 4 event recognized the ongoing contributions of young physicians and alliance, in particular.
Affirming the crucial role of medicine in the legislative process, attendees heard from Rep. Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston), newly appointed chair of the House Committee on Public Health, and the committee’s vice chair, Liz Campos (D-San Antonio).
“I share with you all in a great responsibility,” Representative VanDeaver said. Referencing advice he received from House Speaker Dustin Burrows on his appointment, he added, “You don’t need to be a medical expert to chair this committee. Texas has lots of those. The chair needs to listen and be thoughtful.”
Other legislators were ready to listen, especially for medicine’s solutions to the burdens of rural health care access – Representative VanDeaver cited the closure of two of the hospitals in his five-county district as proof that “all issues multiply moving into rural areas.”
The meetings at lawmakers’ offices provide a forum for presenting data to expose disingenuous arguments, such as some of those presented by proponents of scope expansion.
One myth is expanding scope of practice to nonphysician practitioners will allow them to improve rural health care access. Knowing this is not the case, TMA instead proposes bolstering graduate medical education and residencies in the area. Shae Krause-Castaneda, MD, who previously sat on TMA’s Committee on Rural Health, brought this plan before legislators, accompanied by a host of future physicians.
The primary care and rural medicine program director at DeTar Family Medicine Residency Program at Texas A&M University School of Medicine was a Joint Admission Medical Program (JAMP) student, which enabled her to attend medical school, she says.
“The JAMP program is geared toward underserved, financially disadvantaged families. A lot of the students that were in my class were first-generation college graduates. My family wasn’t going to be able to afford my undergraduate tuition; there were already student loans from that,” Dr. Krause-Castaneda said. Financial support from JAMP enabled her to take MCAT prep courses, which would have been out of reach otherwise.
Daniel Dugi, MD, plugged TMA’s recommended 10% across-the-board increase in Medicaid payments for all specialties as key to improving the physician workforce, along with loan forgiveness for medical residents.
“This day, First Tuesday, is huge. It’s wonderful for the experience, for the physicians, but also for the access to the representatives,” said the past chair of the Committee on Rural Health, a first-time attendee.
Dr. Krause-Castaneda embraced the opportunity to model advocacy for the next generation of physicians.
“There’s this phrase in medicine: See one, do one, teach one,” she said. “It was really exciting to be a part of that first conversation in one of our first legislators’ offices and then to kind of pass the pamphlets on to the next doctor to allow them to then advocate. They didn’t realize how their voice could actually make the difference.”
This year’s remaining First Tuesdays at the Capitol are scheduled for April 1 and May 6. Registration is $25, with fees waived for residents and students. A special hotel room rate is available on the Monday before FTAC. For more information and to sign up, visit TMA’s First Tuesday webpage.
If you’re unable to attend in person, keep an eye on Texas Medicine Today for registration details for the virtual legislative briefing, at which attendees earn CME, held each Monday before the event.