On Thursday evening, San Antonio residents gathered at Beacon Hill Presbyterian Church to discuss policy issues related to the health insurance crisis in Texas. They agreed that because of the ongoing Sunset Review process, there is currently a significant opportunity to make substantive reform to the health insurance system in Texas. Many different policy ideas were put forth, ranging from providing a single-payer system on a federal level, to expanding Medicaid, to greater regulation of the private market.

Participants shared their ideas with and asked questions of panel members Representative Ruth Jones McClendon, Representative Mike Villarreal, and lobbyist Jared Wolfe.

Representative McClendon, who is a member of the Sunset Advisory Commission, pledged to take into consideration many of these positions at the next Sunset meeting on September 22nd. Representative Villarreal agreed that health insurance was an important issue for the upcoming legislative session. He shared his own experiences with the healthcare system and promised to work toward expanding access to quality, affordable health insurance in the next session. Jared Wolfe, the executive director for the Texas Association of Health Plans, said that the insurance industry, too, realized there was need for reform in Texas' health insurance system.

This town hall meeting was sponsored by Cover Texas Now-- a coalition of religious and consumer organizations dedicated to going "pew to pew, door to door, and inbox to inbox" to talk to working Texans about health insurance reform. The coalition is made up of Texas Impact, Texas Legal Services, and ACORN, among other groups.

The next Cover Texas Now town hall forum will be held in Garland at 6:30pm on Tuesday, August 12th at Buckingham United Methodist Church.