Health Care
Where do Texas Democrats Stand on Single-Payer Health Care?
Texas Mother ‘Deathly Afraid’ of Medicaid Cuts Under GOP Health Plan
Patients, families, doctors, and advocates gathered at a health care town hall with Congressman Lloyd Doggett on Sunday.
For Diane Kearns, the current debate over health care reform comes down to this: “Medicaid saved Dean’s life.” Dean is her son, she explained to several h...Read More
The GOP Health Plan Would Give Governor Greg Abbott Power Over Your Coverage
The Senate bill allows states a huge amount of leeway to get rid of insurance requirements.
The Senate Republicans’ health care plan would give governors virtually unchecked discretion over health insurance plans. In red states with governors hostile...Read More
This Week: Texans’ Health Under Attack by Republican Lawmakers
From air quality to vaccines, much of this week’s Observer coverage focuses on public health in Texas.
Keep up with the Observer’s sharp reporting on the Legislature and throughout Texas with this weekly newsletter. As GOP leaders in Washington, D.C. push a...Read More
Who Really Gets Government Benefits In Texas?
It’s already difficult to qualify for Medicaid in Texas. The GOP health care plan would drastically shrink the program.
JOANNA WOJTKOWIAK Texas already has some of the strictest eligibility requirements of any state for poverty relief programs. More than 4 million Texans live in ...Read More
How the Texas Legislature Reached a Dangerous Stalemate on Vaccines
Even as outbreaks of preventable diseases worry public health officials, anti-vaccination activists blocked legislation to address the problem.
It was mid-April, more than halfway through the legislative session, and Texans for Vaccine Choice was finally getting the fight it had been spoiling for. On Ap...Read More
Getting Wise to Bad Air: North Texans Take Smog Monitoring Into Own Hands
After TCEQ refused to place smog monitors in Wise County, a local environmental group decided to take action.
How bad is the smog problem in Wise County? Situated just west of the Dallas-Fort Worth sprawl, Wise County is in the heart of the Barnett Shale gas patch and s...Read More
How Texas’ Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Win Even While Losing in Court
Senate Bill 8 will likely face a lawsuit this summer. The problem for abortion-rights advocates is that legislation often moves faster than the courts.
“Why don’t we just stop passing unconstitutional laws?” asked an exasperated Representative Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie. He spoke in May as the House de...Read More
Governor Greg Abbott Vetoes Women’s Health Committee Despite Ongoing Crises
Rep. Donna Howard said Abbott’s veto is “disgraceful” and jeopardizes “health and safety of women across the state.”
Texas has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, the highest rate of repeat teen pregnancy in the United States, the highest uninsured rate...Read More
Texas’ Maternal Mortality Rate: Worst in Developed World, Shrugged off by Lawmakers
Lawmakers largely ignored the state's pregnancy-related death rate that doubled over a two-year period.
Courtesy/Shawn Thierry When she got pregnant four years ago, Representative Shawn Thierry knew she was at risk. She was 42 at the time, an age at which women ar...Read More