County begins discussing hospital
district
By T.J. Aulds
The Daily News
Published April 23, 2009
With the state legislature
moving toward approving more than $300 million to restore and expand
hospitals at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston County
Commissioners on Wednesday held the first substantive talks about creating a
hospital district.
The discussion was part of
Galveston County Health District Director Dr. Mark Guidry’s review of
indigent health care services, which have been hampered severely by the
problems at the medical branch since Hurricane Ike.
While an appropriations
bill passed by the Texas House of Representatives last week had funding for
the medical branch, including for a new hospital tower, the caveat to state
dollars will be to find more “local” sources for operating expenses.
That likely means a
hospital district will have to be created. A district, which would require
approval of county voters and a new layer of taxes, “will not be an easy
sell, even in places where it’s needed most,” Galveston County Judge Jim
Yarbrough said.
There are many ways to
create and fund a hospital district.
Proposed legislation would
allow for a sales tax to be created to provide funds for a hospital district
instead of hiking property taxes.
Yarbrough said preliminary
county figures, based on taxable values in the county, indicate a hospital
district would take about 6 cents for every $100 of taxable property value
to provide enough revenue to cover health care for not just indigent
patients but also the underinsured. That translates to about $90 more a year
for the owner of a $150,000 home.
That would generate about
$12 million annually for a hospital district.
Geographically, the
district could include the entire county or be isolated to just Galveston.
It could even be limited to just portions of Galveston County, while there
are suggestions to create a regional hospital district that would include a
partnership with Brazoria, Jefferson, Harris and Chambers counties.
With so many
possibilities, including not going forward with a hospital district plan at
all, Yarbrough said he’d like to formulate a more comprehensive plan.
“I am not sure if the best
way to do that is to continue to meet in workshops like this one or form a
committee of some sort,” he said.
“Always a good way to bog
it down is to form a committee,” County Commissioner Ken Clark said.
Clark’s district includes
much of the county’s northern region, including Friendswood and League City,
where opposition to a hospital district already is forming. Still, Clark
isn’t so sure how much opposition there really is.
“I have not heard
widespread opposition,” Clark said. “I really don’t have a sense of how
extensive the opposition is.”
Clark said despite any
anti-hospital district sentiment, he will not oppose putting the creation of
a hospital district where residents would “vote to tax themselves or not tax
themselves” on the ballot.
Clark said he was
concerned the ballot measure may not be the best thing in the 2010 election
cycle as opposed to this year because next year will be a county election
year, which will include his county commissioner’s seat as well as that of
the county judge.
“I don’t think that
something that is as important as health care should be used as a political
football,” Clark said. “When you have people running for office on the
ballot at the same time, it just creates issues.
“It changes the whole tone
of the election. You wouldn’t have a more frank discussion on the pros and
cons of a hospital district.”
Kurt Koopmann
Public Information Officer
Galveston County Health District
(409) 938-2211 or (409) 392-0007
kkoopman@gchd.org
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