TexHealth

Could mRNA technology change the way we prevent seasonal flu?

A new flu vaccine from Moderna is bringing mRNA technology-best known for its role in COVID-19 vaccines-into the seasonal flu conversation.
NBC News takes a closer look at how the vaccine works, what makes it different from traditional flu vaccines, and what people should know as mRNA technology expands into other areas of preventive healthcare.
As new vaccine technologies emerge, understanding how they work, and where they may fit into our existing approach to prevention, will be increasingly important.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/mrna-flu-vaccine-moderna-mflusiva-explained-rcna598524

The first mRNA flu shot is now available. Here’s who can get it. Doses of Moderna’s mFlusiva are available at CVS. Walgreens expects to begin receiving shipments of the vaccine any day now.

Advancing Women’s Heart Health Through Prevention and Rapid Diagnosis

Women continue to face gaps in cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment, making prevention and early, accurate detection especially important.

This MedCity News article explores how better metabolic screening and faster, more precise cardiac diagnostics could help close the gap in women’s heart health.

Worth a read for anyone working to better understand the intersection of women’s health, prevention, and access to care.

Advancing Women's Heart Health Through Prevention and Rapid Diagnosis - MedCity News Early intervention based on accurate diagnosis of both metabolic risk factors and acute cardiac events could help make the difference between life and death for women.

How high is your Investing IQ?

Investing isn't about predicting the market. It's about understanding risk, staying diversified, and focusing on long-term goals. Join us for this free webinar as we break down key investing concepts, retirement planning strategies, and ways to help you become a more confident investor.

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Increase Your Investing IQ Webinar
Tuesday October 13, 2026
12:00pm-1:00pm CDT
Registration link 👇️ https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1r1TYMsNTHqZB0SCzPUNSlv8jdCPgcUu6k0RwsbRUZro/edit

Association Health Plans Deserve Another Look
I was encouraged to see the recent CNBC article reporting that the U.S. Department of Labor is moving toward proposing an expansion of Association Health Plans (AHPs).
At a time when small businesses and their employees continue to struggle with rising health insurance costs, we should be looking for more legitimate coverage options, not fewer.

Association Health Plans make sense because they can allow small employers with a common industry, profession, or other legitimate connection to come together and potentially obtain some of the advantages that larger employers already enjoy.
Think about it: Why should a company with 10 employees have substantially less purchasing leverage than a company with 1,000 employees? If 100 small businesses can organize through a legitimate association and collectively represent hundreds or thousands of covered employees, why shouldn't they be allowed to explore purchasing health coverage as a larger group?

That doesn't mean eliminating consumer protections or opening the door to poorly regulated plans. Appropriate solvency requirements, transparency, oversight, and benefit standards are essential. But regulation should protect consumers without preventing innovative approaches that could improve affordability and competition.

This is particularly important now. Small employers are facing significant health insurance cost pressures, and many are reaching the point where traditional coverage is becoming increasingly difficult to afford. The answer cannot simply be to keep asking small businesses and their employees to absorb higher premiums year after year.

A well-designed Association Health Plan can provide another tool in the toolbox.
For organizations like TexHealth Central Texas, this is especially promising. Association plans could create groups of small employers that may also have employees eligible for premium assistance, potentially combining the purchasing power of an association with assistance that makes coverage more affordable for lower-wage working Texans.
Small businesses deserve choices.
They deserve competition.

And they deserve the opportunity to work together to obtain affordable health insurance.
I look forward to seeing the Department of Labor's proposal and hope policymakers give Association Health Plans a fair opportunity to become part of the solution.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/28/trump-labor-department-proposal-association-health-insurance-plans.html

Labor Department to propose expansion of association health plans, which could lower insurance costs for some workers The agency has submitted a rule proposal to the White House that could allow more workers to get health insurance through association health plans.

You know the basics. But do you know what to look for when it’s time to make an investment decision?

Understanding investing fundamentals is a great starting point. But becoming a more confident investor means knowing how to think beyond the basics.

Join TexHealth Central Texas for **Increasing Your Investing IQ**, a free webinar designed for people who already have some investing knowledge and want to go deeper.

📈 Increasing Your Investing IQ
📅 Tuesday, October 13, 2026
🕛 12:00 PM CDT
🎙️ Miranda Barcena, RICP® and JC Barcena, MBA of Barcena Financial Group

We’ll explore ways to expand your investing knowledge, evaluate your options more thoughtfully, and become a more informed investor.

Already know the fundamentals? This is your next step.

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Know someone who’s ready to move beyond the basics? Share this with them!

2 in 3 Texas small businesses don’t offer health coverage.
For many small businesses, offering health insurance can feel like something that’s simply out of reach.

But access to meaningful health coverage shouldn’t depend on the size of your company.

TexHealth helps small businesses provide health benefits to their employees by making coverage more accessible and affordable.

For small business owners and brokers: What do you see as the biggest barrier to offering health coverage today?

We’d love to hear what you’re seeing in the market.

Healthcare Costs Are Rising Again in 2027: What Can Small Employers Do?
A recent article provides another warning about the affordability of employer-sponsored healthcare.

According to the Business Group on Health survey cited in the article, employers are projecting healthcare costs to increase 9.2% in 2027. Even after changes to control costs, the projected increase is still approximately 8%.

For small employers, increases of this magnitude are particularly concerning. Unlike large corporations, small businesses have fewer employees over whom to spread healthcare risk and less financial flexibility to absorb another year of substantial premium increases.
What Is Driving the Increase?

The article identifies five important trends:
1. Healthcare costs are becoming more unpredictable. Actual healthcare cost increases in 2025 exceeded projections, raising concerns that the 2027 forecast may prove optimistic.
2. Prescription drug costs continue to climb. Drug costs are expected to increase 12%, and pharmacy spending now represents approximately 25% of employers' total healthcare spending.
3. Hospital prices remain a major concern. A majority of employers surveyed identified higher hospital prices as a significant cost issue.
4. Cancer is the leading condition driving employer healthcare costs. For the fifth consecutive year, cancer ranked as the costliest condition, with 70% of employers identifying it as the top cost driver, compared with 58% last year.
5. Employers are reconsidering their strategies. Organizations are placing greater emphasis on prevention, primary care, vendor performance, and measurable value.

A recent Peterson-KFF analysis also found a median proposed ACA Marketplace premium increase of 15% for 2027, while the median underlying medical and prescription drug cost trend was 10%, compared with about 8% in recent years.
Small Businesses Are Caught in the Middle
This is where the healthcare affordability discussion too often misses an important group: small employers and their employees.
When premiums increase 8%, 10% or 15%, a large corporation may have several strategies available. A small business with 2, 10, 20 or 40 employees has far fewer options.
Eventually, somebody has to absorb the additional cost. The employer can pay more. The employee can pay more. Benefits or cost-sharing can change. Or the employer may decide that offering coverage is no longer financially sustainable.
None of those are particularly good outcomes.

This Is Where TexHealth Can Help
At TexHealth, we approach the problem differently.
TexHealth does not replace commercial health insurance. We help make employer-sponsored coverage more affordable for eligible working Texans by providing premium assistance.
For participating small employers with 2–50 employees, eligible employees within the program's income guidelines may receive assistance equal to one-third of their monthly premium, up to $110 per month.
That's up to $1,320 per year that an eligible employee does not have to pay toward their premium. For a lower-wage employee balancing rent, groceries, utilities and transportation, that matters.

It also matters to the employer. Premium assistance can help a small business maintain health benefits and improve affordability for employees.
We Need More Solutions That Address Affordability Directly
We need to address the underlying causes of rising healthcare costs, hospital prices, prescription drug spending, consolidation, utilization and increasingly expensive treatments.
But those solutions will take time. Small businesses and their employees need help now.
Programs like TexHealth demonstrate that public-private partnerships can work alongside the existing commercial insurance market rather than replace it. We can help employers continue offering coverage, help employees afford their share of the premium, and help more working Texans remain insured.
As we prepare for another difficult year of healthcare increases in 2027, the question shouldn't simply be: “How much are premiums going up?”
We should also be asking: “What can we do to help employers and employees afford the coverage they already have?”
That's the problem TexHealth was created to help solve.

https://www.chiefhealthcareexecutive.com/view/rising-healthcare-costs-for-2027-five-takeaways

Rising healthcare costs for 2027: Five takeaways | Chief Healthcare Executive The Business Group on Health says employers expect significant increases in costs, driven by a variety of factors.

📈 Ready to get more serious about investing?
Save the date for our upcoming FREE webinar: Increasing Your Investing IQ.

Designed for those who have some familiarity with investing and want to build on that foundation, expand their knowledge, and become more confident and effective investors.

Join Miranda Barcena, RICP® and JC Barcena, MBA of Barcena Financial Group for an educational conversation focused on taking your investing knowledge to the next level

📅 Tuesday, October 13, 2026
⏰ 12:00 PM CDT
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A decline in substance and alcohol use disorders is good news. But this data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health raises a bigger question: Are we making it easier for people to get help when they need it?

New research points to a decline in substance use disorders among teens and young adults. Yet a significant treatment gap remains, with many people who could benefit from care still not receiving it.

According to the NSDUH, the most common reason for not seeking treatment was the belief that individuals could handle their substance use on their own. But those individual beliefs exist within a broader web of structural and cultural factors that can stigmatize substance use and create barriers to treatment.

Health outcomes don’t improve simply because effective treatments exist. People need to be able to find care, afford it, access a provider, and navigate the system. They also need the support and resources to take that first step toward seeking help.

As the health care industry continues to focus on prevention and early intervention, we should also be asking whether our coverage systems are keeping pace, and whether they are addressing the barriers that keep people from seeking care in the first place.

A worthwhile conversation for employers, health plans, and policymakers alike.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/substance-use-disorders-decline-treatment-gap-persists-2026a1000rdx?form=fpf

Substance Use Disorders Decline but Treatment Gap Persists Substance use and related disorders declined among teens and young adults, but millions of Americans with addiction still go untreated, new national survey data show.

GLP-1 Coverage Is Expanding, But Access Is About More Than Cost
Medicare’s new GLP-1 Bridge program is giving eligible beneficiaries access to certain weight-loss medications for $50 a month. Early reports, however, suggest that making coverage available doesn’t necessarily mean making access easy.

Healthcare Brew’s early look at the rollout highlights a familiar challenge in health care: coverage, affordability, and access are three different things. Providers and pharmacies are reporting confusion, administrative burdens, and uneven readiness, even as CMS reports thousands of beneficiaries have already accessed treatment.

As GLP-1 coverage continues to evolve, employers, insurers, and policymakers will need to look beyond the price of the medication and consider the full picture:

What does sustainable, affordable access actually look like for patients and the organizations serving them?

Those questions are central to building a health care system that balances affordability with quality and access.

https://www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/an-early-look-into-the-rollout-of-medicares-pilot-program-for-glp-1s

An early look at the rollout of Medicare’s pilot program for GLP-1s Medicare began covering GLP-1s for obesity on July 1.