Why is it bad news for Gov. Perry when Science Magazine reports that the head of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Peter Hotez, is leaving George Washington University and moving the 20 plus person vaccine development team to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston? Part of the problem for Perry is that Hotez is setting up the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor's College of Medicine in Houston's Texas Medical Center because this expert in tropical diseases finds Texas interesting "Because there is a lot of poverty; it has the highest rates of parasitic and neglected infections anywhere in the U.S." He continues "In 2008 I described a group of six neglected diseases that are common both in African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans. In addition, dengue has emerged along the Gulf Coast. That's another rationale for being based in Houston".
While Perry has been touting the great medical care available in Texas (and there are some excellent medical centers) the percentage of people in Texas without adequate access to almost any medical care is very high. 30% of adults between 19 and 64 years do not have health insurance nor do 22% of children from new born to 18 y.o. For employed Texans only 47% get health coverage through their job making Texas the 50th lowest state in that group. Probably related to the fact that most of the new jobs created during the "recovery" being low, usually minimum wage. Before Bush and Perry, Texans used to joke that on most lists of the worst states in health and education, etc. they were only #49 because Thank God for Mississippi. Well no more.
Concentrations of poverty and associated disease in the US can be grouped into about 7 classes. Appalachia, Mississippi Delta, the Cotton Belt, Tribal Lands, the Rural Poor, Disadvantaged Urban Groups, and the Southwestern Border Lands. These Border lands extend from South East Arizona through Southern New Mexico and along the entire Texas-Mexico border. In a 2008 paper Hotez lists the neglected diseases of poverty for each region and for the Border region the list contains 6 diseases you would expect to find in poor tropical areas of Africa, Asia, and South America.: Brucellosis, Cysticercosis, Chagas Disease, Dengue, Leishmaniasis, and Leprosy. Three of the six are insect spread are are associated with inadequate housing conditions.
According to the Texas Medical Association
The uninsured are up to four times less likely to have a regular source of health care and are more likely to die from health-related problems. They are much less likely to receive needed medical care, even for symptoms that can have serious health consequences if not treated. About one in five Texans lives at or below the poverty level; for children, it's nearly one in three.
And Perry wants to opt out of "Obamacare" and drop Medicaid leaving nothing for the uninsured except the emergency room which is at least 4 times as expensive.
All considered Perry has a health care problem with all voters except for those that took Alan Greyson's Republican Health mantra to heart.
Don't get sick. If you do get sick hurry up and die.