The real rule of the Texas Legislature is that there are no rules when the rules get in the way. If the Senate needs to pass a budget and can’t get a two-thirds vote to do so, and if there’s a way to squint at the rules and do it with a simple majority, then that’s what they’ll do.
Health care
In-depth reporting on public health, healthcare policy, hospitals, and wellness issues shaping communities across Texas, from The Texas Tribune.
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Health care
Kathleen Sebelius: The TT Interview
In an exclusive on-camera interview with The Texas Tribune on Friday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius discussed the federal government’s efforts to cooperate with a state like Texas, where GOP leaders have been hostile to the Affordable Care Act.
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Health care
Abortion Sonogram Moves to Governor’s Desk
House lawmakers have sent the controversial abortion sonogram bill to the governor’s desk — after a last-ditch effort by disability rights advocates to change language they called highly offensive.
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Health care
Bills Targeting Teen Pregnancy Making Little Headway
According to researchers, Texas taxpayers would save about $57 million per year if the state cut its teen birth rate. But as Gretch Sanders of KUT News reports, proposed legislation to curb the state’s teen pregnancy problem — and save taxpayer dollars — hasn’t gotten much traction.
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Health care
Institutions for Disabled Unlikely to See Major Cuts
Advocates for shuttering Texas’ institutions for the disabled thought they had the numbers on their side: a budget crisis so severe that lawmakers would have to close some state-supported living centers. With less than a month left in the session, their hopes are largely dashed.
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Health care
How Good a Job is Texas Doing to Prevent Teen Pregnancy?
Every 10 minutes a teen in Texas gets pregnant, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. With groups observing the 10th Annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy today, Gretch Sanders of KUT News reports on the search for ways to bring that rate down.
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Health care
Update: House Gives Early OK to Rural Hospitals Hiring Docs
The House has tentatively voted to let rural, critical-access hospitals in counties with populations of 50,000 or less hire doctors — partially lifting a long-standing ban on hospitals directly employing physicians.
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Health care
Patient Privacy Bill Gets Early House Approval
House lawmakers have given an early endorsement to Rep. Lois Kolkhorst’s bill to protect Texans’ private medical information.
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Health care
House Gives Early OK to “Choose Life” License Plate
A bill directing the Department of Motor Vehicles to create an anti-abortion license plate to raise money for crisis pregnancy centers got an early OK from the House — and staved off a flurry of amendments from Democrats.
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Health care
Planned Parenthood Again in Lawmakers’ Crosshairs
GOP lawmakers’ battle against Planned Parenthood resumed today, as members of a Senate subcommittee passed out a bill that would renew the Texas Women’s Health Program but prohibit the country’s most prominent family planning organization from participating.