How We Got Here
Texas’ health system has been underfunded, understaffed, and unprepared for years. Here, COVID-19 found the perfect place to spread.
Health and Human Services Commission
Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults
Suicide is quiet crisis in Texas, especially in rural communities. As the dust settles on the 86th Legislature, advocates say most initiatives to curb suicide deaths failed.
Inside Texas’ Failed Experiment to Replace Planned Parenthood with an Anti-Abortion Group
The Heidi Group’s quick rise and fall is a cautionary tale of prioritizing politics over proven health providers.
Texas Republicans Dismiss Research as They Move to Further Defund Planned Parenthood
Jane Nelson, the Senate’s chief budget writer, praised the Legislature’s funding of women’s health programs despite state data and other research that shows they are not meeting the needs of poor women.
Texas Ends Contracts for Anti-Abortion Group Tapped to Provide Women’s Health Services
The announcement comes two weeks after the Observer reported that the Heidi Group served just 3,300 of the 70,000 patients it promised.
Texas Officials Allow 15 Immigrant Shelters to Hold More Kids than Licenses Permit
To accommodate Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, Texas officials have allowed at least 15 shelters to hold more than 700 additional kids, records show.
‘Heart-Wrenching, Gut-Wrenching’: How Child Therapy Providers Deal with State Budget Cuts
Lawmakers have given providers an impossible task: deliver the same level of services to more kids, with far less money.
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State Plans to Restore Services after Advocates in Wheelchairs Surprise Officials
After disability advocates surrounded HHSC officials Monday, they were told the contract would be renewed, but few details have been provided.
