Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/745998
t m c » p u l s e | n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 6 8 of me, but put your money where your mouth is. Support this legislation. Start being a co-sponsor of some of these bills. Be my champion on the House floor." A RT H U R " T I M " GA R SON , M . D. Director of the Health Policy Institute at the Texas Medical Center "A disturbingly large number of Americans do not have access to affordable health care. Since health care isn't affordable, how do you make it affordable? One way is you actually reduce the cost to the person with health insur- ance. You come up with some way to pay 100 percent or close to 100 percent to people who have no coverage—as in Medicaid expansion. There are a lot of political issues in Medicaid expansion, but figuring out how to use federal And it came down to the wire, but I ended up deciding to take that plan, because I never know what the future holds for me. But there are also blessings in this muddy mess that has been created because of my health. Multiple, multi- ple blessings. And my surgeons at MD Anderson are part of that blessing, for sure. I feel like I'm getting the best care in the world. And right here in my back yard. It's a three-and-a-half hour drive from home. Can't beat that. The big CEOs of these insurance corporations, I don't think they really care. The legislators, they care to a certain extent, but if it doesn't involve them or their family members, if it doesn't really affect them personally, they feel bad but, you know, I get the, 'Oh, poor thing, we sympathize with you and we're on your side and you keep fighting.' I get the same stuff every year, and I'm thankful that they're supportive dollars to support people who really can't afford to buy health care is import- ant. One could figure out how to take those dollars and, instead of putting them into the Medicaid plan, put them into private plans that would cover peo- ple who have limited access to health insurance or don't have enough money." ST E PH E N H . L I N DE R , PH . D. Director of the Institute for Health Policy and Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Management, Policy and Community Health at UTHealth School of Public Health; Associate Director of the Health Policy Institute at the Texas Medical Center "There is a tendency to view the health sector as independent of other sectors. But what if we start considering health in relation to other things? For example, transportation is essential to people's well-being, adequate housing is essen- tial to people's well-being. Education also plays a key role in health—not just early childhood education, but educa- tion all the way up through adolescence into high school. There's clearly an adverse effect on people who have a limited education, as it is more difficult for them to get good jobs and function in the economy. So that's a health issue. We're beginning to see that health issues cannot be solved by simply giving people more access to care. If a person doesn't have a job and the stress is exposing them to lots of chronic ill- nesses, then simply treating the chronic illness doesn't remove the cause. The idea of going upstream and focusing on ways of preventing illness earlier leads us into considering other sectors and the contributions they make to health. It's a complex web."