Hospitals to Budget Conferees: Cuts Hit Us Too Hard
Texas hospitals have a pointed message for the lawmakers hashing out the final details of the 2012-13 budget: The proposed cuts hit them too hard. Full Story
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John Mendelsohn: The TT Interview
Dr. John Mendelsohn, the outgoing president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discusses the significance of budget cuts for his institutions, the value of public research and his advice for his successor. Full Story
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Update: Planned Parenthood Rallies Against Funding Cuts
At a Capitol press conference this morning, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and daughter of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards, said her organization is under siege by GOP lawmakers. Full Story
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Elderly, Disabled Fight Pay Cut to Service Providers
Advocates for the elderly and disabled are fighting a proposal in the Legislature that they say would reduce the wages of the personal care attendants who provide services through the Medicaid Community-Based Alternatives waiver program. Full Story
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Despite Uproar, State Lawmakers Pursue Medicare Overhaul
Across the nation, U.S. House Republicans are getting an earful from their constituents about a GOP budget proposal to overhaul federal Medicare. But that message hasn’t made its way to Texas, where state lawmakers are still angling to take control of the program. Full Story
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House Gives First OK to Medicaid Waiver Plan
House lawmakers have given an early okay to Rep. Lois Kolkhorst’s bill to ask Washington for a block grant to run Medicaid — the joint state-federal health care program for children, the disabled and the very poor — as Texas sees fit. Full Story
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Is David Dewhurst Goofy — or Goofy Like a Fox?
It’s funny that you can win four statewide elections and still have people think you’re a goofball, in over your head. But maybe Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s fumbles leading to the Texas Senate’s budget vote give the lie to that. Maybe he’s goofy like a fox. Full Story
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Playing by the Rules
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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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In Hunt for Revenue, It's Big Tobacco vs. Little
It’s big tobacco vs. little in the effort to smoke out new revenue for the Texas budget. Large tobacco companies, which fork over half a billion dollars to the state every year as part of a 1998 lawsuit settlement, want small cigarette manufacturers to pay their share. Full Story
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Children's Hospitals Face Brunt of Medicaid Cuts
Despite some efforts to lessen the blow to pediatric health care providers, Texas’ proposed budget cuts will likely have a disproportionate effect on children’s hospitals, which treat the state’s youngest and poorest patients. Full Story
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Bill Aims to Expand Organ Registry, Save Lives
Lawmakers are hoping nonprofit organizations can do a better job of recruiting organ donors and saving lives. HB 2904 would transfer management of the state-run organ-donation registry from an agency to a new collaboration of nonprofits, a shift supporters say will reduce the number of Texans who die while waiting on the list. Full Story
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Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman
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