Brazosport Facts (Internet / Print) 12/30/05http://thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=ee96bb0a4e25be2e Insurance costs are rising as the number of uninsured and underinsured turn to hospitals for primary care. Many people have considered the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston as the place to go if no one else will take them. The hospital has accepted the poor in huddled masses. However, with a growing number of uninsured patients; delays in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement; and declining state support, the hospital faced an $80 million budget shortfall in 1998, according to a University of Texas System article. “For many years it really was true that UTMB served every person that came here,” Marsha Canright, the hospital’s media relations director, told The Facts, “and it doesn’t take much thought to realize that if you do that these days you won’t have a hospital left.”