Legislators and abortion opponents cheered the Susan G. Komen for the Cure's original decision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood.  

Susan G. Komen for the Cure CEO Nancy Brinker and Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards — both native Texans — are speaking out about the breakup of two of the nation's most iconic women’s health organizations.

Texas lawmakers and hospital administrators took a hard look Tuesday at the state Medicaid waiver recently OK'd by the Obama administration. 

In Texas, where mental health professionals are already hard to come by, another issue has exacerbated the situation in the state's growing minority populations: finding treatment providers who understand the communities' cultural and language differences.

The federal government's rejection this week of a state request to exclude certain providers — namely Planned Parenthood — from the Women's Health Program came as a victory to some family planning advocates, and a travesty to others.  

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has turned down Texas’ request to run a family planning program that excludes some providers — namely Planned Parenthood. But it approved Texas' request for a waiver to expand Medicaid managed care.

Fewer Texans will receive food stamps in December than in November, but the number is still up overall since 2005 as the national recession continues. Our updated interactive map allows you to explore the number of food stamp recipients in your county and the economic impact of the program.

The number of Texans receiving food aid has increased by nearly 1.4 million in the last four years. Use this interactive to see the percentage of each county's population that receives food assistance and the economic impact of the federal funds.

Gov. Rick Perry vehemently opposes forcing Americans to carry health insurance — yet his home state leads the nation in the size of its uninsured population and ranks near the bottom on almost every measure of coverage. 

We'll be liveblogging throughout the weekend from The Texas Tribune Festival's health and human services track — which includes panels on the fight over federal health reform, whether Texas can cure cancer and what effect tort reform has had statewide.

Along the Texas-Mexico border, colonias residents tell identical stories: of migrating with dreams of safety and prosperity, of getting swindled into buying worthless land, of sticking it out so their children will get educated. And of getting sick.

Conditions have clearly improved in Texas' colonias since devious developers first established them for migrant workers in the 1950s. But many efforts have fallen short, the result of bureaucratic nightmares and a spiral of confusion and fees. 

A glitch in the federal health reform bill that would make many middle-class Americans eligible for Medicaid could cost Texas nearly $90 million a year by 2017, according to a state analysis. 

Children on Medicaid under the age of three will not be prescribed powerful anti-psychotic drugs without a special authorization, under new rules the state Health and Human Services Commission implemented last week.

State lawmakers have fired back against a Federal Trade Commission letter suggesting Senate Bill 8 — a key piece of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's health reform push — violates antitrust laws. The measure is expected to come up for a vote in the House on Tuesday. 

For the third session in a row, legislation covering end-of-life care in Texas appears, well, dead. 

The budget that state lawmakers are poised to accept attempts to eliminate wide variations in what hospitals are paid by Medicaid for performing the same procedures on similarly sick patients — a sweeping change in how Texas hospitals are funded.

The Federal Trade Commission is warning that one of the key health care reform bills trumpeted by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, could substantially harm consumers.