Harris County Judge Robert Eckels gave the State of the County speech yesterday before the Greater Houston Partnership. Here’s the text of the speech, here’s the Chronicle‘s coverage and here’s KUHF-88.7’s coverage, which includes this:
Aside from preparing for storms, Eckels says health care might be the county’s biggest challenge in 2006. He says one in every 36 uninsured Americans lives in Harris County or an adjacent county, which means the Harris County Hospital District has become a safety net of sorts for the region’s sick.
“Last year, we wrote off $1.3 billion in charity care. That trend threatens our long-term ability to provide trauma and emergency room service and health care to the people of this region, this communty, who have no other means to provide health care for themselves.”
