Money for medications about to run out at Texas MHMR center

From the El Paso Times:

Frustration will apparently go unassuaged as money for medications is due to run out for as many as 1,500 people on the El Paso Mental Health Mental Retardation rolls. More persons in need will soon be forced to seek care at hospital emergency rooms as indigents, and some will wind up in the county jail.

Both scenarios come at taxpayer expense.

El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar said it's frustrating because the Texas Legislature is not directing enough funds to El Paso. And she said a change in the state funding procedure makes Houston and some other cities in East Texas the winners, and El Paso a loser.

We've seen this before. The president of the Texas Medical Association, Dr. Josie R. Williams, told the El Paso Times Editorial Board that it's the poor border areas that qualify for federal health-care money, but those areas don't regularly get their share of those allotments disbursed from Austin.

Escobar said the county budgets about $500,000 a year while the city and University Medical Center put in lesser amounts.

It's not enough to cover expenses, officials say.

This problem was seen several months ago, but it appears there's no immediate remedy.

As Escobar said, the state is putting the burden on local communities, which don't have the needed money in their budgets.

When medication supplies run out, patients will either go without or will have to find other ways to get the help they need.