The proof of East Texas’ live-hard, die-young culture is in the bread pudding — and the all-you-can-eat fried catfish, the drive-through tobacco barns and the doughnut shops by the dozen. In a community where heavy eating and chain smoking are a way of life, where poverty, hard-headedness and even suspicion hinder access to basic health care, residents die at an average age of 73, or seven years earlier than the longest-living Texans, according to a preliminary county-by-county analysis by the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Medicaid
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Economy
TribBlog: Pitts Says Expect Big Budget Cuts
Trib CEO Evan Smith spent the morning interviewing House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, at a TribLive event. And Pitts made some news. Here are a few headlines.
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Health care
TribBlog: Steady Medi(caid)
Thirteen states expanded Medicaid or CHIP eligibility last year, and 14 states made improvements in enrollment and renewal procedures. Texas didn’t fall into either of these categories, but the state held steady in 2010, while making improvements in technology to prepare for the roll-out of federal health care reform.
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Economy
Decision Time
The Texas Legislature today starts its 140-day effort to puzzle out a massive budget deficit, political redistricting, immigration and a slew of other gnarly problems. The budget issues came into focus Monday with new numbers from the comptroller, who says the state is recovering, slowly, from the recession. But first, legislators will get organized, voting on new rules, a new Speaker, and getting sworn in.
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Criminal Justice
Pomp, Circumstance, Consequences
The 82nd Texas Legislature convenes in Austin this week, and while it’s not as much fun as the circus — usually — it’s more important and does have its share of comedy and drama.
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Health care
Discharged?
Advocates for shuttering Texas’ institutions for people with disabilities say they have a big plus in their column this session: the state’s giant budget crunch.
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Economy
The Revenue Guesstimate
Lawmakers are waiting for Comptroller Susan Combs to forecast exactly how much money the state will collect between now and August 2013 so they can write a two-year budget that spends no more than that. It’s not exactly like opening the envelopes at the Oscars, but the Capitol community will be hanging on her every word. If history is a guide, her estimate of revenues will be closer to the bull’s eye than the Legislature’s estimate of spending. But this is a dark art; accuracy can be elusive.
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Health care
TribBlog: A Medicaid Crisis?
Texas’ Medicaid program is in a “state of financial crisis,” according to an analysis of caseload and costs published by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank. It’s the latest addition to the debate over whether Texas should drop out of the federal Medicaid program.
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Health care
TribBlog: Christus CEO On Tort Reform
Dr. Thomas Royer, president and CEO of the Christus Health System, says that if an error occurs at the hospital, the patient should be financially reimbursed — but not with limitless settlements. He has blogged a response to Sunday’s Texas Tribune/New York Times article on the effects of tort reform on the safety of Texas emergency rooms.
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Health care
Left, Behind
The prevailing theory among Republicans, at least publicly, is that their House herd of 101 will always move together as one, and there will be peace and harmony in the land and all that.
