HEALTH POLICY
Medicine Meets Public Policy.
Texas laws, regulations, programs, and proposed legislation can affect health, safety, and access to care. This section provides factual, evidence-informed information about health-related policy issues and the legislation surrounding them.
Understand the issue and current law.
Read evidence and primary sources.
Understand proposals and policy options.
Use civic tools to make your voice heard.
Affordable & Accessible Medications
Prescription medication costs, insurance coverage, emergency access, and availability of supplies can affect whether people obtain and consistently use needed treatments. This topic includes information about prescription costs, assistance programs, emergency access, diabetes prevention, early treatment, foot care, and follow-up.
Texas policy examples: HB 632 — Emergency Refills for Insulin and Related Supplies; SB 1677 — Diabetes-Related Amputation Study.
Overdose Prevention & Naloxone Access
Naloxone is a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. This topic explains overdose recognition, when and how naloxone can be used, where it may be obtained, and how Texas policies address opioid-antagonist access and distribution.
Texas policy examples: HB 4783 — Statewide Opioid Antagonist Distribution Reporting; SB 1986 — Opioid Warning Labels.
Mental Health & Access to Psychiatric Care
Access to mental and behavioral healthcare can be affected by availability, affordability, transportation, insurance coverage, provider shortages, stigma, and the availability of services in underserved communities.
Maternal & Postpartum Mental Health
Maternal and postpartum health policy can address screening, behavioral healthcare, follow-up care, insurance coverage, and access to services. Texas policy examples include HR 586, which recognized Maternal Mental Health Day in 2025, and HB 3917, which proposed Medicaid and CHIP coverage for up to four maternal depression screenings during a child’s first year of life.
Safer Roads & Injury Prevention
Preventable injuries are a public-health issue. Traffic crashes can result in traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, fractures, disability, chronic pain, psychological trauma, and death. Texas transportation and public-safety policies address issues including driver education, speeding, impaired driving, work-zone safety, roadway design, and enforcement. These policies can affect crash risk and injury outcomes.
Texas policy example: SB 1366 — Driver Education & Work-Zone Safety.
Healthcare Access for Underserved Texans
Geography, income, insurance status, provider availability, and transportation can affect access to care. Healthcare access can vary based on geography, income, insurance status, provider availability, transportation, and the availability of mental-health and substance-use services. These factors can be especially relevant in rural communities and among uninsured or underinsured Texans.
Medical Debt Protection & Patient Financial Safeguards
Medical-debt policy can address billing transparency, opportunities to dispute bills, financial assistance, payment-plan information, collection practices, and consumer credit reporting. This topic explains relevant laws and proposals and their potential effects on patients and healthcare consumers.
Texas policy examples: SB 1784 proposed a 60-day notice before certain healthcare debt collection activity; SB 1000 proposed changes relating to certain medically necessary debt and consumer credit reporting. These proposals should be described according to their legislative status rather than as current law.
CIVIC PARTICIPATION
Learn → Understand → Ask Questions → Contact Representatives → Participate
Civic engagement can be informed, respectful, and nonpartisan.
This site does not endorse political parties or candidates. Texans can independently review legislation, consider evidence and community needs, and communicate their own perspectives to elected officials.
The purpose of this section is to help Texans better understand the policymaking process and participate in decisions affecting their communities.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2027
Following What Comes Next.
Texas’s next regular legislative session begins in January 2027. Health-related policy issues that may receive attention include medication affordability and access, diabetes prevention and complications, naloxone and overdose prevention, mental healthcare, maternal and postpartum mental health, rural access, workforce shortages, traffic and injury prevention, and public-health preparedness.
When new legislation is introduced, this site can provide summaries of what a proposal does, who may be affected, what evidence is available, and where to find official information.
Our goal is not to tell Texans what to think. It is to help Texans understand.