M. Smith and Butrymowicz of the Hechinger Institute on charter schools and public schools making nice in the Valley, Ramsey’s interview with House Speaker candidate Ken Paxton and column on the coming budget carnage, Hu on the Legislature’s disappearing white Democratic women, Grissom on the sheriff who busted Willie Nelson, Hamilton talks higher ed accountability with the chair of the Governor’s Business Council, Aguilar on the arrest of a cartel kingpin, Ramshaw on the explosive growth in the number of adult Texans with diabetes, Philpott on state incentive funding under fire and Galbraith on the greening of Houston: The best of our best from November 29 to December 3, 2010.
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
TribBlog: Suehs: We Must Change — Not Abandon — Medicaid [Updated]
Texas cannot walk away from Medicaid, and Gov. Rick Perry agrees, Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs said this afternoon, hours after releasing the agency’s long-awaited report on the feasibility of dropping out of the federal matching program.
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Health care
TribBlog: Report: Texas In No-Win Situation With Medicaid [Updated]
The effects of Texas dropping out of the federal Medicaid program would be sweeping and to some populations devastating. But that doesn’t mean the current system is workable for Texas, according to a long-awaited report released today by the state’s Health and Human Services Commission.
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Health care
TribBlog: Court Says Medical Board Suit Can Proceed
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons may continue its lawsuit against the Texas Medical Board, despite a lower court’s ruling, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided today.
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Health care
TribBlog: Warren Jeffs On Texas Soil
Warren Jeffs has made it to Texas. The embattled leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — the polygamous Mormon breakaway sect whose Eldorado ranch was raided by child welfare officials in 2008 — will stand trial in San Angelo for allegedly sexually assaulting a child.
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Health care
Diabetic Shock
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.
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Health care
A Conflict in Care?
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.
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Economy
There Will Be Blood
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.
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Health care
Nothing Personal
Tom DeLay broke the law in order to grab power. That’s unusual — most politicians steal money.
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Health care
Tom DeLay Wins!
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.