In this Jan. 22, 1983, file photo, Dallas Cowboys Tony Dorsett takes a hard hit and fumbles the ball in first quarter of a game against the Washington Redskins. Dorsett is one of at least 300 former players suing the NFL claiming it pressured them to play with concussions and other injuries and then failed to help them pay for health care in retirement to deal with those injuries. (AP/File)
A bill that began as a limit on the amount of full-contact practices for high school and middle school football teams has morphed into a pilot insurance program designed to help cover students at risk of concussions during sports practice.
The bill passed the Texas House on Tuesday on a voice vote.
The legislation by Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, would let the UIL and the Texas Education Agency develop an option insurance program that would cover ongoing, post-season, concussion-related injuries incurred by boys who play football and girls who play soccer for UIL. The program would be option, not a mandate.
The bill would need to make it through the budget conference committee, but passage of it would allow them to discuss it.
Lucio is currently laying out his bill, and it looks to have support.
?If you get a concussion, it doesn?t manifest itself right away. Sometimes it manifests itself after the season is over. The current insurance program (offered by the public schools) won?t cover you if you start to suffer from concussion-related injury after the season,? Lucio said. ?As you know, we have a very serious problem when it comes to head trauma and mental health of people who play contact sports. This would allow parents to properly prepare and guard against that.?
The bill would create a pilot program for insurance coverage. UIL and TEA would choose the participating school districts, which could opt out if they are tapped. It is also permissive to the parents, who can choose to pay the $5 coverage cost or not.
The bill has already been added to the budget bill, as it carries a cost of $100,000 to administer it. That Article 11 rider can?t be considered in conference committee without Lucio?s new legislation, according to House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, who supported the new bill.
Stakeholders are in support, including coaches and teachers, Lucio said.
Lucio pulled down his original bill, he said, when he learned that the UIL was going to take up the same issue next month.?As introduced, Lucio?s bill would have limited to one hour per week the full-contact practices for high school and middle school football teams.
Next month, the UIL Legislative Council will take up the unanimous recommendation of its Medical Advisory Committee that football programs be limited to 90 minutes of full-contact, game-speed practices per player per week during the regular season and playoffs.
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