Texas Physicians Standing Up for Border Patients

Texas physician leaders are meeting with federal lawmakers and government officials in Edinburg today to discuss critical health care needs and challenges facing communities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The 12th Annual Border Health Conference is sponsored by the Texas Medical Association (TMA) Border Health Caucus (BHC). The BHC’s mission is to ensure access to care for all patients along the border, and this year’s conference agenda also covers top issues of national importance.

Many of the issues also affect all Texans and Americans, including:

• Federal health care act reform and the future;
• Public health threats like arboviral diseases (diseases spread by insects and other arthropods), and public health infrastructure; and
• Cross-border health issues, because health care knows no boundaries.

Top Texas physicians, and health care, academic, and government leaders, led by BHC Chair Manuel Acosta, MD; BHC Vice Chair Luis Benavides, MD; and TMA President and founding BHC member Carlos J. Cardenas, MD, as well as honorary conference Chair U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Brownsville) are in Edinburg today to address these critical issues.