The following is a summary of
the Texas Medical Association’s
2021 legislative priorities. For
more information, visit www.
TexMed.org/legislature and check out the
January 2021 issue of Texas Medicine.
In addition, First Tuesdays at the Capitol
has gone virtual for 2021! Join TMA and
TMA Alliance on the first Tuesday of the
month (February - May 2021) for a virtual
legislative update. TMA’s lobby team will
outline issues important to medicine
and actions you can take now to make
a difference. Registration is free. Visit
www.TexMed.org/firsttuesdays for more
information and to register for any and all
days you are available.
Support State
Graduate Medical
Education Funding
Texas leads the nation in population
growth. Physician demand is now at
unprecedented levels, and Texas needs
more physicians to respond to this need.
Texas must grow its GME capacity to retain
medical graduates in the state for training
and ultimately for entrance into medical
practice. Good health is dependent on
access to medical care.
TMA’s Legislative Recommendations
• Continue state support for the following
critically important GME capacity-building
and -sustaining programs:
• Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board budget: Graduate Medical Education
Expansion Program, State Rural Training
Track Grant Program, and Family Medicine
Residency Program; and
18 DALLAS MEDICAL JOURNAL • February 2021
• Health-related institution bill patterns
budget: formula funding for GME teaching
costs.
Improve Access to
Immunizations
Vaccinations are important, safe,
and effective. They defend our families,
our community, and our economy from
infectious diseases. The COVID-19
pandemic clearly illustrates what can
happen when a vaccine does not exist to
ward off a deadly infectious disease.
TMA’s Legislative Recommendations
• Oppose any efforts to weaken school
immunization requirements;
• Request frequent, detailed, and
transparent government reporting of
immunization data, including for long-term
care facilities;
• Remove obstacles to campus
enforcement of school immunization
requirements by ensuring students sent
home for missing vaccinations do not
count against average daily attendance
used to fund campuses;
• Support funding for a coordinated
statewide campaign through a
collaboration of physicians, the Texas
Health and Human Services Commission,
the Texas Department of State Health
Services, and Medicaid managed care
organizations to encourage families to
vaccinate their children;
• Remove consent barriers to integration
of ImmTrac2 with electronic health records,
while respecting the right of families and
individuals to remove participation; and
• Create access to flu vaccination
through the Adult Safety Net program.
Provide Meaningful
Healthcare Coverage
for Uninsured Texans
More than 5.2 million Texans – nearly
20% of our state’s population – lack health
insurance, the highest number in the
country. Each day, more Texans join their
ranks. From 2018 to 2019, the uninsured
number in Texas grew by 230,000. The
COVID-19 pandemic has only made it
worse as more Texans lose their jobs and
healthcare coverage. While estimates
vary, approximately 659,000 workers lost
their coverage this year, resulting in nearly
one in three adults under age 65 without
coverage. With the current trend, Texas
will have more uninsured people than
the combined populations of Oklahoma
and New Mexico. Texas can no longer
ignore the human, social, and economic
impact of having more than 20% of our
people uninsured. Healthcare coverage
matters, resulting in healthier constituents
and more economically prosperous
communities.
TMA’s Legislative Recommendations
• Develop a meaningful, statewide
healthcare coverage initiative using federal
dollars to:
• Extend meaningful coverage to lowincome
uninsured working-age adults;
• Establish a state-administered reinsurance
program to reduce premiums for
people enrolled in marketplace plans.
• Provide 12 months’ comprehensive
coverage for women who lose Medicaid 60
days postpartum; and
• Establish 12 months’ continuous coverage
for children enrolled in Medicaid, the
same benefit given to children enrolled in
the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Essential Public
Health Infrastructure
We’ve seen that our public health data
systems are woefully ill-equipped to help
with real response to disease outbreaks
and surveillance against future threats.
The Texas economy cannot afford the
cost of not having a strong public health
infrastructure.
TMA’s Legislative Recommendations
• Ensure state PPE stockpiles are
adequately stocked, maintained, and
replenished as necessary, and establish
a plan for equitable distribution of PPE
LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW
TEXAS MEDICAL ASSOCIATION 2021 Texas
Legislative
Session
Priorities