In rural counties, recruiting doctors is the single biggest health care challenge. Twenty-seven counties have no primary care physicians.
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
The Prescription: A Small-Town Doc’s Take on Health Care Reform
As Congress wrestles with the fine print of massive health care legislation, doctors in Texas say both their practices and their patients will be affected. Nathan Bernier reports for KUT News from Athens, about three hours northeast of Austin, where a doctor reveals the unique challenges of providing care in a small town.
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Health care
Rural Doctors in Their Own Words
Rural health care providers in West Texas talk about the unique challenges they face in treating their patients.
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Health care
No Country For Health Care, Part 3: Shrinking Rural Ranks
It’s no time to be an advocate for rural health care. Rural lawmakers say they’re consistently outnumbered and under-represented — and that redistricting will only make matters worse.
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Health care
TribBlog: Still Seeking Sustenance
The state is working to get poor Texans food stamps quicker, but it’s not fast enough for many families, and too many children are getting their only hot meal at school, according to Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid.
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Health care
No Country For Health Care, Part 2: The Trauma Hole
Emergency medicine doctors say trauma victims must receive care within the “golden hour” to survive. But many rural Texas counties aren’t anywhere near hospitals that can handle complex injuries or illness.
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Health care
No Country For Health Care, Part 1: Far From Care
Dozens of rural Texas counties have no primary care doctors, no hospitals, no pharmacies. Many Texans live more than an hour from basic medical care. And some border communities have so little health care that U.S. citizens cross over into Mexico to get it.
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Health care
Badillo Family on Rural Health Care
Moises Badillo talks about his struggle to get health care for his profoundly disabled son in a rural community in Van Horn.
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Demographics
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Roll your own political videos … interactive travel maps of your federal and state legislators … scary movies, to keep the kids out of the border’s scary drug wars … puttting dropouts back in class … rates squeezing families out of home health care … how many lobby and trade associations do teachers in Texas need? … enjoying the silence before an expected two-month siege of political advertising … the dean of Texas political writers gets shut out of the gubernatorial debates … and we have an interactive database of the state’s best and worst public schools. The best of our best for a short news week, from December 19 to 26, 2009.
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Demographics
TribBlog: Texas Grows
We added more people this year than any other state — more than Florida, Arizona, California, Nevada and Colorado combined.