TMA EVPGram

The 81st Texas Legislature convenes tomorrow, with a new speaker of the house waiting in the wings, a tight two-year budget needing to be written, and the house of medicine prepared to push an aggressive agenda for physicians and patients. TMA is asking lawmakers to follow the treatment we outline in Doctor’s Orders: TMA’s Prescription for a Healthy Texas. We know it will be a difficult session, but TMA’s design asks legislators to:

• Hold health insurance companies accountable and create a health insurance code of conduct;
• Protect our 2003 health care liability reforms;
• Stop the unsafe expansion of nonphysicians’ scope of practice;
  Preserve physicians’ autonomy from hospital and corporate ownership and interference; and
• Improve Texas’ fiscal and physical health.

Each week for the next 140 days, we will outline one of TMA’s priorities in the EVPGram. We begin today with our plan for a “health insurance product label.” I encourage you, the leaders of medicine, to engage from the beginning, stay in touch with your legislators, and come to our First Tuesdays at the Capitol. You can begin watching the six-minute video we produced to accompany Doctor’s Orders.