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The latest health care news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Diabetic Shock

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The number of adult Texans with diabetes is expected to quadruple over the next three decades, a massive spike that demographers and health care experts attribute to the state’s aging population and obesity epidemic. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • There Will Be Blood

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ask House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and he'll tell you: The budget he and his fellow finance types will put forward in a few weeks confirms fears that carnage is looming. "We're making huge cuts," he told a Tea Party group last week. Full Story 

    State Representative Jim Pitts, representing District 10. District 10 includes Ellis County and Hill County, Texas.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • A Conflict in Care?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    For years, the state paid private providers who care for people with disabilities to handle their clients’ case management. But an 11th-hour change inserted into the budget last session stripped them of that responsibility, giving it instead to quasi-governmental Mental Retardation Authorities — and potentially creating a conflict of interest. Full Story 

    Health care assistant Crystal Kreig plays a card game with Steve Parker (center) and Eulalio Alvarada (right) at a group home operated by D&S Residential, Inc. Companies like D&S used to handle case management for their clients, but a budget change sent that responsibility to local Mental Retardation Authorities.
    Credit: Caity Colvard

  • Tom DeLay Wins!

    By Ross Ramsey

    Yes, a jury convicted the former U.S. House majority leader of money laundering. But his maps — the ones that upended the careers of Democrats and helped the GOP take over Congress — are still in place. No amount of jail time can change that. Full Story 

    Tom DeLay, shown after his trial in 2011. DeLay, who was convicted of conspiracy and money-laundering, was found innocent of all charges by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2014.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • Deborah Peel: The TT Interview

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The patient privacy advocate on why our electronic medical records are in grave danger, how they could be used to discriminate against us and what Facebook can teach health care professionals about informed consent. Full Story 

    Deborah Peel, founder and chair of the non-profit Patient Privacy Rights
    Credit: Emily Ramshaw

  • Drip, Drip, Drip

    By Ross Ramsey

    You know the home inspector told you to fix that leak but hey it wasn't a flood or a lot of water and everything seemed okay and you let it go and now the insurance company is slow-paying and the contractor is shaking his head and your wallet and this is really a painful way to run a race for speaker... Joe Straus hasn't had a really good news day since the Republicans won 99 seats on Election Night and he announced the next day that more than four out of five House members wanted him back. Full Story 

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Hu on the Perry-Bush rift, Ramshaw on the adult diaper wars, Ramsey's interview with conservative budget-slasher Arlene Wohlgemuth, Galbraith on the legislature's water agenda (maybe), M. Smith on Don McLeroy's last stand (maybe), Philpott on the end of earmarks (maybe), Hamilton on the merger of the Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Education Agency (maybe), Aguilar on Mexicans seeking refuge from drug violence, Grissom on inadequate health care in county jails and my conversation with Houston Mayor Annise Parker: The best of our best from November 15 to 19, 2010. Full Story 

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  • Diaper Change

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Call it a bad case of adult diaper drama: Incontinence product vendors are facing off against the state comptroller’s office over plans to competitively bid underpads, catheters and other supplies for Texas Medicaid patients. Full Story 

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    Credit: Richard Richards

  • Arlene Wohlgemuth: The TT Interview

    By Ross Ramsey

    The former budget-slashing Texas House member and current executive director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation on how she reads the mood out there, what reductions in state spending should be on the table, whether cost-shifting to local school districts is a plausible option, why lawmakers should forget about new sources of revenue, the trouble with Medicaid and what members of the Republican near-supermajority in the Legislature must do to keep the confidence of voters — and get re-elected. Full Story 

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  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Galbraith on energy conservation and basketball, Ramshaw (and Serafini of Kaiser News) on what would happen if states abandoned Medicaid, Hallman on cities and counties lobbying the feds (and a Stiles data app visualizing what they're spending), Aguilar on legislative attempts to stop human trafficking, Aaronson on cuts in Senate office spending, Philpott on the latest run at a Senate rule that empowers political minorities, yours truly on how the GOP landslide will change the way things work at the Capitol, Hu catches the first day of bill filing and finds immigration at the top of the agenda and Hamilton on a wobbly partnership between two Texas universities: The best of our best from November 8 to 12, 2010. Full Story 

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  • The Opt-Out Option

    By Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune, and Marilyn Serafini, Kaiser Health News

    A week after newly emboldened Republicans in the Texas Legislature floated a radical cost-saving proposal — withdrawing from the federal Medicaid program — health care experts, economists and think tanks are trying to determine just how possible it would be. The answer? It’s complicated. But it’s not stopping nearly a dozen other states, frantic over budget shortfalls and anticipating new costs from federal health care reform, from exploring something that was, until recently, unthinkable. Full Story 

    The waiting room at People's Community Clinic in Austin, TX in November 2010.
    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • TribBlog: A Death At Daystar

    By Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune, and Terri Langford, Houston Chronicle

    A 16-year-old boy has died of an apparent restraint-related asphyxiation at the Daystar Residential Treatment Center, the same facility where children with disabilities were forced to fight each other a couple of years ago. Full Story 

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    Credit: Nick de la Torre / The Houston Chronicle

  • No More Medicaid?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Some Republican lawmakers are proposing an unprecedented solution to the state’s massive budget shortfall: opting out of the federal Medicaid program. But experts say the rhetoric may be more of a middle finger to Washington than sound public policy. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • Election Days

    By Ross Ramsey

    Twice as many people showed up for the first three days of early voting in the state's top 15 counties as came out four years ago, according to the Texas Secretary of State. Through the end of the day Wednesday (there's a lag in the reporting and those were the latest numbers as we published), 435,007 people had voted, compared with 219,436 four years ago. As a percentage of registered voters, that's 5.22 percent this year as opposed to 2.7 percent four years ago. Early voting continues for another week. During the 2006 gubernatorial election, 13.2 percent of the registered voters in those top 15 counties voted early. Full Story 

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    M. Smith on the frailties of electronic voting machines, Hu on the big bump in early voter turnout, Chang talks to the national coordinator of Health Information Technology, Hamilton on why the nondiscrimination policies of state university systems don't include sexual orientation, Aguilar on the prospect of high school football referees on strike, Stiles updates our government employee salary app to include 20 more public agencies, Philpott on where the candidates in HD-52 stand on fast growth, Galbraith on damage to Texas roads caused by heavy truck traffic, Grissom interviews the first Hispanic sheriff of Harris County and my one-hour sit-downs with Rick Perry and Bill White: The best of our best from October 18 to 22, 2010. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman