Closing the Coverage Gap: What You Need to Know
Guest post via Texas Well and Healthy What is the Coverage Gap? About 1 million uninsured Texans are in the Coverage Gap, meaning they have no affordable health insurance options but would be covered if the state accepted new federal health care funds intended for them. They do not receive health insurance from their employers. They […]
Budget Season in Texas Means Sleepless Nights
What keeps you up at night? Is it the risks of not having health insurance? The rising cost of college? Overcrowded classrooms at your child’s school? Well, it’s budget season at the Texas Capitol, and how legislators decide to invest state money could profoundly affect these and other aspects of our lives. What have we […]
Texas Medicaid Spending in Context
The 84th Legislative Session is now well underway, with committees appointed and holding hearings on budget and other important policy issues. In both House and Senate budget hearings, you may have heard legislators surprised to hear how much Texas Medicaid spending has grown. When we talk about increased Medicaid spending, we have to keep in […]
Grab Your Boots, It’s Legislative Session Time
As the 84th Texas Legislative Session begins, I feel energized, prepared and optimistic. Really! Yes, the every-other-year legislative session can be divisive and nerve-racking. But the Capitol belongs to all of us as Texans, and these 140 days are our chance to shape the state our children will inherit. Our offices are buzzing here at […]
Census Data Show Tiny Gain in Texas Health Coverage, but Change in Census Survey Requires New Comparisons
On Tuesday, September 16, the U.S. Census Bureau released annual estimates on health insurance coverage based on the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the American Community Survey. To better understand the difference between the two surveys, view our side-by-side comparison. The new data released today are for 2013, and do not include the effects of the full […]
Unusual Suspects Call for Expanded Health Care in Texas
I don’t pay much attention when a car dealer tries to sell me extra products and services that I don’t need. But I listen closely when a prominent Republican elected official in Texas says we need to expand health care access for low-wage workers. This month Harris County Judge Ed Emmett joined five other county […]
OPED–Working Toward A Stronger Mental Health System
“As the nation mourns for the lives lost and traumatized by the tragedies in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Tucson, Ariz., and College Station, people are talking about the importance of mental health services. We shouldn’t stigmatize people with mental illness, who are in fact more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. Nonetheless, we […]
Why Decision By DSHS to Halt Privatization is Good for Texans
By Katharine Ligon A coalition of mental health and civil rights advocates, as well as Texas Legislators, are celebrating the recent decision by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) not to privatize the Kerrville State Hospital, one of 10 state mental health facilities. This all started when the 2009 Legislature directed DSHS to […]
Watch This Wednesday: Health Insurance Exchanges
By Texas Well & Healthy staff A lot of discussion about the Affordable Care Act revolves around the role of health insurance exchanges. Texas will have one in 2014, but what is the health insurance exchange? Our community educator, Cheasty Anderson, may be out on maternity leave, but she helped us in developing “video one-pagers” […]
OP-ED: Health Reform Ruling is Good for Texas
Between interviews, conference calls and deciphering the Supreme Court’s opinion to uphold the Affordable Care Act, our associate director and health care guru Anne Dunkelberg wrote this guest column for the Texas Tribune: Health Reform Ruling is Good for Texas Thursday’s court ruling, is, to paraphrase the vice president, a really big deal for the country […]
