The Congressional budget deal reached in Washington this weekend could have dire implications for Texas’ federally qualified health centers — clinics that provide comprehensive care for the uninsured.
Emily Ramshaw
Emily Ramshaw was the editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune from 2016 to 2020. During her tenure, the Tribune — billed “one of the nonprofit news sector’s runaway success stories” — won a Peabody Award, several national Murrow Awards and top honors from the Online News Association.
Before joining the Tribune in 2010 as one of its founding reporters, Ramshaw spent six years at The Dallas Morning News, where she broke national stories about sexual abuse inside Texas’ youth lock-ups, reported from inside a West Texas polygamist compound and uncovered “fight clubs” inside state institutions for the disabled. The Texas APME named Ramshaw its 2008 star reporter of the year. In 2016, she was named to the board of the Pulitzer Prizes.
A native of Washington, D.C., and the product of two journalist parents, Ramshaw graduated from Northwestern University in 2003 with dual degrees in journalism and American history.
From Texas to D.C., Debate Over Medicaid Funding Rages
If congressional Republicans’ proposed solution to cutting health care costs — giving states block grants to fund Medicaid — sounds familiar, it’s because it is.
How Texas Cities Rank on End-of-Life Care
Want to die comfortably? Move to Corpus Christi. A study of national hospice and hospitalization trends shows the percentage of Medicare patients dying in hospitals there, as opposed to at home or in hospice, is dropping fast.
Anti-Abortion Groups Disagree on End-of-Life Legislation
The state’s two leading anti-abortion groups — Texas Right to Life and Texas Alliance for Life — agree on where life begins, but not on a law governing how it may come to an end. A house committee will take up the issue today.
Hospital Firms Spar Over Takeover Bid, Fraud Allegations
Tenet Healthcare Corp., a Dallas-based hospital company under siege by Community Health Systems, has sued its competitor and potential parent for allegedly overbilling Medicare.
From Lege to Council Race, Cohen Takes a “Step Closer”
When Ellen Cohen decided, two months after losing re-election to her state House seat, to run for Houston City Council, a friend worried, “Isn’t that a step down?” Cohen’s answer? “No, it’s a step closer.”
What A Hospital Tax Could Look Like In Texas
Use our app to see what hospitals would have to pay in taxes, and whether they’d come out ahead or behind in total revenue, if one version of a “quality assurance fee,” or hospital tax, were on the books.
Some Dentists Bad-Mouth Anti-Cavity Bill
Some pediatric dentists are bad-mouthing a bill that would allow mobile dental clinics to be paid by Medicaid for sealing the teeth of low-income kids at school.
To Some House Republicans, Family Planning = Abortion
Is “family planning” a euphemism for abortion? For many House Republicans, yes. It’s not that they don’t understand the difference — it’s that they don’t trust family planning clinics not to steer women toward abortions.
Updated: Will Hospitals Be Taxed to Prop Up Medicaid?
Talk has resumed in the Senate — albeit quietly — about a so-called quality assurance fee, a revenue generator that would effectively tax hospitals to prop up the state’s cash-strapped Medicaid program.


