Howdy policy watchers,
This is the last installment of our 4 part series examining the bills. We hope y’all have been enjoying the series, because we’ve been having a ball blogging bout the bills. Like the alliteration? So, this installment will examine H.B. No. 1133, which would create a Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Board. The Review Board would work toward helping to increase the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity.
To help us better understand the importance of prenatal care, Team TK turned to the nonprofit think tank, Urban Institute, for some enlightenment. The Urban Institute is a think tank focused on providing nonpartisan economic and social policy research. Their mission statement is “The Urban Institute gathers data, conducts research, evaluates programs, offers technical assistance overseas, and educates Americans on social and economic issues – to foster sound public policy and effective government.” The Urban Institute is committed to deepening the public understanding of policy issues and has ten policy centers. The Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center is supposed to explore health care costs, access, and reform through extensive research and analysis of key health issues. When it comes to health care reform, the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center recognizes that “enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act brings extraordinary opportunities for greater security, affordability, adequacy, and equity in health insurance coverage.” Also according to an article from The Hill’s Healthcare Blog, the author Julian Pecquet promulgates that the “liberal Urban Institute” has published a study that indicated the health care reform would benefit hospitals and physicians. (If you want to read the actual article, check out our references below :) It seems pretty clear that the Urban Institute is a supporter of health care reform, but it is very cognizant of the many obstacles. The Urban Institute is more than willing to provide analytic support to policymakers about the health care reform.
Now that we know a little bit more about the Urban Institute and their stance on health care reform, let’s take a very brief look at some of their research on prenatal care, the core of H. B. No. 1133. In March 2009, the Urban Institute published a study that analyzed Medicaid outreach and enrollment strategies targeting pregnant women across the nation. This was a collaborative effort with the National Academy for State Health Policy and funded by the March of Dimes. The study found there was “considerable room for improvement in outreach efforts and enhanced prenatal care”(Hill et al., 2009). The study provided some policy recommendations to expand prenatal care. For example, they recommended that the time spent on determining a pregnant woman’s eligibility for a health care program should be minimized so she can become a part of a health plan and be provided prenatal services as soon as possible. This report has some very interesting information, and it hopes that state policymakers will be able to utilize the policy report.
Currently, the bill is stuck in the House Committee on Public Health. Ideally, there will be a few public hearings on it, there will be a vote, and it will be sent to the Senate and then to Governor Perry. In order to better understand the legislative process, we attended a morning meeting of the House Public Health Committee. The meeting was at 8 AM, April 20th, and it began with a quorum call (also known as roll call) by the corporal. Afterward, the very first thing that was addressed was the...heat. That's right the heat. It's okay to chuckle a bit, because we did. After it was decided that the AC would be fiddled with, the actual legislative proceedings began. First, the schedule of bills to be discussed was announced. It seemed like they had a lot planned for their short one hour meeting. It was actually called an "ambitious schedule". Then, some housekeeping items were attended to, and the committee got down to business. There was a long list of bills that had to be discussed, including H.B. No. 915 and H.B. No. 1266. It was announced that there was a change of events, and some bills, like H.B. No. 75, were no longer being discussed at the meeting due to time constraints. Both of the bills had to do with licensing advanced practice registered nurses being able to prescribe and order prescription drugs.Those bills were just two of very many bills that had to be discussed. There was a process, and the committee systematically went through the bills. Each bill would get considered, committee substitutes would be considered, available testimonies would be provided, and its fate would be decided. Most of the bills became "pending business" in the committee. There were a few bills that got voted on, and the members would vote "aye" or "nay". Of course, each vote was recorded. Before we knew it, the hour flew by and the meeting was adjourned! It was interesting to see how the legislature worked, but at the same time it was a bit disheartening. The 82nd Texas Legislature has over 900 bills to process, and so H.B. 1133 is just one of many. There's a very good chance that the bill will be in committee for awhile, and it might be "pending business" for the rest of the session.
So what to do in the meantime? There's plenty of other bills that have to do with health care to look out for and to keep up to date on. Also, get educated. There's plenty of research that's related to health care that could enhance your understanding of what's going on. Also, it wouldn't hurt to refresh your memory on how a bill becomes a law. Check out this Guide to the Texas Legislative Information it will explain all about the legislative process in easy to understand terms.
Well that concludes our 4 part series over the bills. We hope y'all learned something :) Team TK definitely learned a lot through the process of creating the 4 part series. No wonder legislators have so many interns! Keep posted for our next one AND make sure to stay political.
Team TK out!!
References
Hill, I., Hogan, S., Palmer, L., Courtot, B., Gehshan, S., Belnap, D., & Snyder, A. (2009). Medicaid Outreach and Enrollment for Pregnant Women: What Is the State of Art?. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411898_pregnant_women.pdfPecquet, Julian (2010). Urban Institute touts healthcare reform’s benefits or hospitals and physicians. The Hill’s Healthcare Blog. Retrieved from http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/109281-urban-institute-touts-healthcare-reforms-benefits-for-hospitals-and-physicians
Texas Legislative Council (2010). About the legislative process in Texas. Retrieved from http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/gtli/legproc/process.html.
Urban Institute: http://www.urban.org/
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