Health Care Check-Up: The Costs Of Caring For The Uninsured In El Paso

By ABC-7 Reporter Daniel Marin

EL PASO, Texas – It’s a combination of living in Texas and living on the border. One in three El Pasoans lives without any kind of health coverage, and it’s costing our hospitals.

A spokeswoman for Las Palmas Medical Center says that hospital spends roughly $36 million a year caring for the uninsured.

University Medical Center CEO Jim Valenti says his hospital spends about $250 million a year in “uncompensated care;” $58 million of that is covered by El Paso County property taxes.

“If we had to create a new El Paso, you would never create a community where a third of the community is uncovered,” said Valenti.

Sierra Providence Health Network President John Harris says those with insurance carry the uninsured burden in other ways, too.

“The costs of charity care end up, in one way or another, being spread across all health and related charges to patients,” Harris told ABC-7.

Sierra-Providence spends about $115 million a year covering those without benefits.

All hospital officials agreed health care reform is needed.

“We need to fix what’s wrong without destroying what’s right in the United States,” said Harris.

So what is right in the U.S. when it comes to health care?

Harris points to the quality of care in America, which he deems debatably better than that of any other western nation. Valenti says the U.S. offers a unique ray of medical specializations.

But Harris says doctors need to be protected against malpractice lawsuits. That, he says, will help build important doctor-hospital relationships and, ultimately, drive down costs.

Attracting and keeping doctors has always been a problem in El Paso, thanks to a high number of Medicaid and Medicare recipients. Valenti says whatever plan Washington comes up with, money should be used to attract young people to medical professions.

Hopefully, so they’ll stay and work in El Paso.