Leaders of the University of Texas’ six health science centers put out a serious warning this week. They are concerned that federal health overhaul plans could dry up the funds that the stat’s medical centers use and need to produce doctors.
At the moment, the Legislature provides state funds to cover about 25% of the cost for educating a physician. The rest of the money has come from hospital patients’ insurance payments and from additional federal funds for treating low-income patients. Under the new federal legislation, these hospital payments will be drastically cut under Medicaid and Medicare, starting in 2014.
Certainly, the six schools are working hard to try to save money, but these cuts will be felt by the state and by potential physicians as well.