House Speaker Nancy Pelosi discusses medical costs with Dallas leaders at health care roundtable

Federal funding for COVID-19 testing and treatment is running out, potentially leaving North Texas vulnerable to future virus outbreaks, Dallas health care leaders warned Monday during a discussion with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi joined Dallas Democratic congressman Colin Allred, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Dr. Philip Huang in a health care roundtable to discuss the cost of medical care and the financial burden shouldered by community health organizations because of Texas’ high rate of uninsured residents. Parkland Health spends $1.8 million per month treating uninsured patients for COVID-19, Huang said. As life in North Texas inches back toward a pre-pandemic normal, dwindling funds to test and treat COVID-19 could spell trouble for preventing and handling future virus surges.

“I think we need more money already because testing and things will stop that are helping us get over this,” Pelosi said. “That doesn’t mean that we stop [testing], that means we see how much of it we need.” The Biden Administration warned last week that the U.S. won’t have enough booster shots and antiviral COVID treatments if Congress doesn’t pass $22.5 billion in additional pandemic funding, CNBC reported. A week earlier, House Democrats removed $15 billion in COVID funding from a broader spending bill in order to reach an agreement with House Republicans. COVID-19 case numbers in North Texas finally stabilized in the last few weeks after the omicron-driven spike in January. The lull in new cases offered a reprieve for hospitals after more than two years of battling the COVID-19 pandemic, although health experts don’t know how long that much-needed break will last. Countries in Europe and Asia are experiencing outbreaks of BA.2, a more contagious sub-lineage of the original omicron variant called BA.1. Omicron’s rapid spread throughout the U.S. will likely protect most Americans from severe illness caused by BA.2 because the sub-variant responds to omicron antibodies, said Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.