Welcome

Improving the health of residents is a challenge in every state across the nation, and Texas is no exception. A 2005 study by the United Health Foundation ranked Texas 39th among the 50 states in terms of the overall health of its residents.

Two critical factors affecting health are access to health care and level of income, and Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured residents in the nation. The region of Texas with the highest level of poverty – over twice the rate of the rest of the state – is the along the Mexican border. Residents of this region have elevated levels of diabetes, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and other preventable diseases, and there are vast areas with little or no local public health infrastructure to address these issues (east of El Paso, the closest local health department on the border is six hundred miles away).

To help address this need, the Texas State Legislature passed a law in 2003 that called on the Department of State Health Services to create a Texas Border Health Foundation (TXBHF) to apply private sector solutions and seek new sources of funding to address these disparities. Two years later, legislation expanded the state’s work with the Foundation to include the many health related issues across the border in Mexico that impact Texans.

Since it became an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation in 2005, the TXBHF has begun to fulfill its mission to improve the health of individuals and families in communities along the entire Texas border with Mexico. Its most recent project provides fiscal oversight for a federal CDC grant through the State of Texas to prevent and control tuberculosis.

The TXBHF Board of Directors currently includes leaders from the communities of El Paso, Laredo, Brownsville, Corpus Christi and San Antonio that have in-depth knowledge of border health issues and extensive private sector experience. The Board’s objective is to bring together public agencies, private companies, individuals, and non-governmental organizations to more efficiently utilize public resources and seek new sources of funding to address these disparities. Since the Board was formed in March of 2004, they have consulted with stakeholders across the region to develop the foundation’s policies, goals, and projects.

Over the next year, the TXBHF Board intends to establish program areas of need and raise the funds necessary to improve health in this underserved region. We welcome your ideas as we build this foundation – please contact us at: Ideas@TXBHF.org.