The roughly 1.3 million Texans who bought health insurance under the Affordable Care Act will likely have fewer, more expensive coverage options in 2017, as health plans continue to announce they will no longer sell their products in Texas.
Edgar Walters
Edgar Walters worked at the Tribune from 2013 to 2020, most recently covering health and human services. Before that, he had a political reporting fellowship with the Berliner Zeitung, a daily newspaper in Berlin. He is a graduate of the Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin, where he worked as an editor for The Daily Texan. When not in the newsroom or at the Capitol, he could be found on the volleyball court, standing 6 feet, 7 inches tall.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Judge Denies UT-Austin Professors’ Attempt to Block Campus Carry
A federal judge has denied three University of Texas at Austin professors’ initial attempt to keep guns out of their classrooms under the state’s campus carry law.
Posted in
Health care
Texas Sees “Unusual” Spike in Pregnancy-Related Deaths, Study Finds
Texas has seen an “unusual,” dramatic increase in the number of women who died from pregnancy-related causes in the last five years, according to a new study.
Posted in
Health care
Growing Zika Threat Prompts New Calls for Medicaid Expansion
Advocates for the uninsured are hoping the threat of Zika will spur Republican leaders to consider a massive expansion of subsidized health care to the low-income Texans they say are most vulnerable to the disease.
Posted in
Health care
Massive Health Data Warehouse Delayed Again, A Decade After Texas Pitched It
Texas health regulators are starting from scratch in designing a project to store massive amounts of data — after spending millions of dollars trying to roll out a version that’s now been scrapped.
Posted in
Health care
Anti-Abortion Advocate’s Group Receives Women’s Health Grant
A group led by an anti-abortion advocate received $1.6 million in state funding from a program recently created to help women find health care services paid for by the state.
Posted in
Health care
Baby Girl’s Death is First Zika-Related Fatality in Texas
A baby has died in Harris County from complications related to the Zika virus, local public health officials said Tuesday. The death is the first known fatality in Texas linked to the virus.
Posted in
Health care
In Fight over Surprise Medical Bills, Some Lawmakers Target Insurance Regulators
Lawmakers are trying to find a way to prevent surprise medical bills, while doctors, insurance companies and patients argue over who is responsible for them. Now, some lawmakers are pointing fingers at the state’s insurance department.
Posted in
Health care
Harris County Sued over Disabled Voting Access
Harris County, which includes Houston, has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because many of its polling places are inaccessible to voters with disabilities, a new lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice alleges.
Posted in
Health care
To Fight Zika, Texas Medicaid Will Pay for Mosquito Repellent
Texas officials announced on Wednesday they would allow Medicaid to pay for mosquito repellent for women in the hopes of preventing the Zika virus.
