The latest health care news from The Texas Tribune.
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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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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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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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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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
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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More than 2,000 people listed in a statewide database of people who mistreat children are caught in a backlog of cases waiting for appeals, many with their careers and families hanging in the balance. Full Story
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The Senate unanimously approved Sen. Jane Nelson’s bill to find extensive cost savings in Texas’ Medicaid program, the primary health care provider for children, the disabled and the very poor. Full Story
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With less than five weeks left to go in the session, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst sat down with the Tribune to talk about his future political plans, the status of the budget in the Senate and in the biennial parley between the Senate and the House, redistricting and the tug-of-war over the Rainy Day Fund. Full Story
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Waiting for the Senate budget debate? Get comfortable. Plans to bring the Senate’s substitute for the House’s budget, HB 1, up for a vote on the floor on Thursday have for now been pushed back to Friday or later, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said. Full Story
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Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, trying to build enough support to bring the budget up for consideration this week, appealed in writing to state senators, supporting the plan and a provision that would allow the state to spend $3 billion from the Rainy Day Fund. Full Story
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Holdup? What holdup? Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, says he's got the votes to send abortion sonogram legislation back to the House — but the timeline for doing it depends on how quickly the Senate passes the budget. Full Story
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State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst’s bill to further protect Texans’ private medical information looks stuck; it’s been three weeks since it passed out of committee, and it hasn’t yet been set for a House vote. Full Story
With the Senate set to debate the state budget this week, Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports that several outside groups want to shape the conversation. Full Story
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