Building the Calhoun County Hospital District

Building the Calhoun County Hospital District2025-02-12T18:39:59+00:00

Calhoun County voters will be asked to vote May 3 to approve or reject the creation of a new hospital district to serve Calhoun County. Voters also will be asked to approve or reject a property tax assessment of up to 40 cents per $100 of assessed property value to fund the hospital district. If approved, the initial recommended property tax rate will be 10 cents per $100 of property value.

Read on to learn more about why Calhoun County needs a hospital district and what your property taxes will support.

Calhoun County Commissioners set the election for May 3.

The Financial Bottom Line

We believe you have a right to know why the hospital needs property tax revenue and how much will be collected.

The biggest reason we need a hospital district is to have a stable, reliable, and predictable source of funds to keep operating our hospital and to pay for physicians and nurses, medical equipment, medicines and supplies, 24/7 capacity, and medical care for those without health insurance.

If approved by County voters, the hospital district will raise $6.8 million in property tax revenue in the first year, the majority of which will come from corporate and industry property owners, not individuals.

Our hospital is a county hospital, but the county does not provide any operating funds to the hospital.

The state requires the County to provide indigent care to uninsured residents. Last year, Memorial Medical Center billed the County $7,418 for indigent care provided and received just over half that amount ($3,990) in reimbursement. More significant to our bottom line is the charity care program, authorized by the County and overseen by the Board of Managers, to provide medical care to uninsured and low-income individuals. That program resulted in more than $7.8 million in unfunded, uncompensated care for the hospital last year.

That leaves a huge shortfall for the hospital.

In addition to uninsured patients, most of the hospital’s insured patients have coverage through government health care programs — Medicare or Medicaid. 53 percent of the hospital’s patients have coverage through one of these programs. The problem is that these programs do not pay for medical care at the amount it costs the hospital to provide it.

 

This is another huge shortfall for the hospital.

 

Another financial challenge is the hospital receives much less funding from the government in the form of supplemental payments than it used to. Two of these payments are known as uncompensated care (UC) and disproportionate share hospital (DSH). UC payments over the last 5 years dropped from $2.8 million to $202,000. DSH payments dropped from almost $1.2 million to only $80,000.

 

Another huge shortfall for the hospital.

 

Maintain the Hospitals’ Current Services and Expand Capacity

Over the last 75 years, Memorial Medical Center has carefully invested to make sure our community has a local source of medical care for emergencies, inpatient care, routine primary care, and advanced specialty care. We know our community depends on us. Nearly 10,000 residents came through our emergency department last year, and 2,000 needed trauma-level care.

Making sure our community has local medical care is why we have an intensive care unit, cardiac and pulmonary rehab, surgery, infusion therapy, specialized wound care, and outpatient specialty clinics. It’s also why we are still one of a shrinking number of rural hospitals that still provide obstetrics and nursery services for pregnant women and their babies.

 

  • A hospital district will support the hospital in maintaining these services, many of which are not profitable because of they are resource-intensive to provide and/or are not adequately paid for by insurers.
  • A hospital district also will support the hospital in adding services and capacity. Evolving with our community’s healthcare needs means we need to add orthopedics and pain management services, for example, and bring in more general surgeons. A hospital district will provide the financial stability to be able to make those long-term investments for the health of our community.

 

Grow Our Local Economy

Our region has long been home to multiple industries from plastics to seafood. We can now add nuclear energy to the list. Construction on four Xe-100 advanced small nuclear reactors (SMRs) at Dow’s Seadrift plant is slated to begin in 2026 and is projected to create 1,500 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs once completed. There is also plans for Exxon to build a new plastics plant, and the widening of the Matagorda Shipping Channel is also expected to bring in new industries.

Industries like these depend on a strong local healthcare infrastructure for their employees and their families for.

> Access to trauma and emergency care in the event of an industrial accident.

> Local, convenient access to primary and specialty outpatient care to reduce absenteeism and increase productivity.

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Caring for our Seniors

Let’s work together to care for those who got us here.

Honor the commitment and work of those who helped make Calhoun County what it has become by ensuring they have the healthcare services they need here locally. Our seniors shouldn’t have to drive to Victoria or Houston for the medical care that helps them stay healthy, connected, and engaged with loved ones. Locally available healthcare can mean the difference between staying well or not getting care at all.

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