Today, the Texans for Healthcare Access Coalition released a patient voices video, urging Texas lawmakers to remove barriers to healthcare for Texans.
The video follows the stories of three Texas patients and their healthcare journeys: a senior rural patient from Bedias; a patient from Longview who struggled with and overcame her substance use disorder; and a Texas mother who underwent emergency childbirth at a critical access hospital in St. Augustine. In each of these patient stories, access to a nurse practitioner close to home made a critical, life-saving difference.
Texas is in a healthcare crisis, with provider shortages and access challenges touching every part of the state. The HEAL Texans Act (SB 1700) would lift restrictions on Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, like the nurse practitioners in these stories, so that these providers can take care of patients without barriers and extend more care to the Texans who need it most. Learn more here.
“We’re in a crisis. There’s lots of people out there who need lots of help. Without Tracy’s help (my nurse practitioner) I would not be here today. I would not have survived the lifestyle I was living.”
-Cynthia, a mental health patient from Longview, Texas
“Everything is bigger and better in Texas. But when I look at the fact that 21 rural hospitals have closed in the last decade, I think about the administrators that are having trouble sleeping thinking about how they’re going to keep their doors open in their hospital to provide care to their community.”
-Ken, nurse practitioner who worked at a critical access hospital in St. Augustine, Texas
“Nurse practitioners are wanting to move into rural health, but having to have an agreement with a physician that can be 100-plus miles way – it’s too expensive, and it’s too restrictive."
-Elizabeth, rural health nurse practitioner in Bedias, Texas