The latest health care news from The Texas Tribune.
We must continue to fight to ensure that we implement cost-saving reforms that reflect Texas' commitment to prosperity and to economic growth. But our current budget shortfall isn't a time to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Full Story
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We need a balanced approach that uses our reserves and adds revenue. And we have to start by casting aside wishful thinking; we are writing the 2012-13 budget, with higher costs and increased enrollment in education and health care services — not some past budget. Full Story
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More money is not the answer to our current woes. Just as anyone managing a household budget knows, when a family’s expenses grow beyond its income, the solution is to cut back — particularly if its spending habits resemble the state's. Full Story
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For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked whether a Republican who supports abortion rights can survive a statewide primary, whether the sonogram bill on the governor's list of emergency items addresses a real or a political problem, whether it will pass and what other issues of interest to social conservatives might win approval from this Legislature this year. Full Story
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State Comptroller Susan Combs may test that question. She is considering a run for lieutenant governor in 2014. Full Story
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The keepers of numbers over in the LBJ Building, north of the Capitol, have confirmed to lawmakers what they warned them about in 2006: The legislation that cut local school property taxes and revised the state's corporate franchise tax didn't balance, to the tune of $10 billion a biennium. Full Story
The best of our best from January 31 to February 4. Full Story
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No time to follow every twist and turn of the Texas Legislature? We've made it easier for you with our weekly recaps of the action under the dome. Full Story
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“Dear future son,” the North Texas father wrote in a prospective adoption letter. “I am a single dad who adopted a middle school boy in 2008. Now we are looking for one more kid so he will have a brother.” Instead, the father got shocking news: He would not be allowed to adopt again because his son is on a state registry of people who abuse children. Full Story
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Texas leaders aren't talking about secession, after an outbreak of conversation a couple of years ago. But the germ of the idea remains in the anti-federalist talking points that fueled Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign last year and provided the outline for his book, Fed Up! Full Story
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In this week's TribCast, Evan, Ross, Reeve and Ben discuss the budget's structural deficit, the effort to repeal health care reform, the back-and-forth over House District 48 and if 2011 will be the year Texas bans smoking. Full Story
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From patients and parents to nurses and practitioners, the many faces of Texans affected by health care budget cuts gathered at the Capitol today to give an earful to lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee. Full Story
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The Senate Finance Committee heard public testimony today on proposed cuts to health and human services. Full Story
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Lawmakers are crafting legislation to make health care more affordable and effective by rewarding doctors who get the best medical outcomes. But the cuts they're proposing to meet the state's budget shortfall could hinder some of the same physicians they're relying on to implement payment reform. Full Story
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The lieutenant governor believes he knows how to save Texas money and improve patient care by overhauling how doctors and hospitals are paid: with carrots, not sticks. In an interview with the Tribune, he talks about what he sees as the root of the health care crisis, and his proposed solutions. Full Story
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Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs pulled no punches when he warned Senate lawmakers today what proposed budget cuts will mean: either cutting the number of people served, or the money paid to those who care for them. Full Story
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The latest from Gov. Rick Perry's preferred polling firm, Baselice & Associates, shows that 70 percent of Texans support a ban on indoor smoking, including in restaurants and bars. Full Story
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Texas agencies facing the budget ax say the only thing left to cut are the services they fund. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on fears that many of the state's nursing homes could be forced to dramatically cut back or even close as a result. Full Story
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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says the reason is simple: Never before have Americans been mandated to buy a product for a specific reason. Full Story
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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says there will be no limits to congressional authority if the constitutionality of health care reform is upheld. Full Story
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