Will hospital district shrink under 'Obamacare?' - Houston weather, traffic, news | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston

It used to be that one in three Houston residents had no medical insurance. That's roughly 1.2 two million people  whom mostly rely on the community's public health care safety net known as the Harris County Hospital District.

Under President Obama's Affordable Care Act more than 700,000 of these uninsured will get coverage and have the option of seeking treatment anywhere they want.

HCHD Chief Executive David Lopez contends that while the system's core constituency will certainly shrink, demand for publicly funded care remains substantial.

"That will leave half a million people still uninsured in our community and that's why we are here obviously," said Lopez.

Of that half million left without health coverage most are immigrants without documentation, folks the Affordable Care Act left out.

Lopez says the Harris County Hospital District will seek to hold on to many of it's newly insured, low income patients by simply competing.

"We provide high quality care and what we provide in terms of services is more than just fancy buildings or whatever.  We have a culture of taking care of people with dignity, with compassion and with quality being a non-negotiable," said Lopez.

And then there's the distinct possibility that a huge numbers of low income Texans will say "no thank you" to even heavily discounted health insurance.

University of Houston Law professor Seth Chandler follows the issue closely and believes many will be reluctant to leave the safety net.

"Many people may decide to simply stick with the system that they already have. Scrounge here, scrounge there and hope for the best rather than pay $3,000 or $4,000 for individual coverage each year per year or pay $8,000 to $10,000 for family coverage each year," said Chandler.