health care

2010: The Wages of Sin

By Ross Ramsey Oct. 5, 2010

If the state needs money to balance its budget, it should look first to sin taxes on gambling, alcohol and marijuana. Full Story

Credit: Todd Wiseman
A Cost-Benefit Analysis

By Nathan Bernier, KUT News Oct. 5, 2010

3M Co. is the latest American company to stop offering health insurance plans to early retirees. Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports that more employers are looking to drop employees from coverage plans because, they say, the federal health care overhaul will make it easier for people in their 50s and 60s to find affordable policies on their own. Full Story

Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman
An Interview With Arc of Texas President Clay Boatright

By Emily Ramshaw Oct. 4, 2010

Full Story
TribBlog: State Forgoes Millions in Federal Sex Ed Funds

By Reeve Hamilton Oct. 4, 2010

At the end of the summer, Texas quietly opted to forgo another pot of federal money — specifically, $4.4 million that would have gone toward educating youth on abstinence and contraception to prevent teen pregnancy. Full Story

Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman
In the Soup?

By Emily Ramshaw Sept. 29, 2010

Double-billing taxpayers for travel expenses, driving a luxury car owned by a state transportation contractor and repeatedly failing to pay taxes won’t put a lawmaker in good standing with the ethics police, as state Reps. Charles “Doc” Anderson, R-Waco; Joe Driver, R-Garland; and Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, are finding. The three hope the headlines dogging their re-election bids won’t follow them to the polls, while their Democratic opponents are reveling in their misery at every campaign stop. Yet whether a scandal forces an incumbent from office depends on the scenario. Full Story

Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

By Evan Smith Sept. 25, 2010

Aguilar on Mexican journalists in grave danger, Galbraith on the continuing saga of Texas vs. the EPA, Ramshaw on whether a broken hospital bed constitutes medical malpractice, M. Smith on the latest delay in the Cameron Todd Willingham case, Hamilton interviews a Sarah Palin-approved GOP candidate for Congress, Stiles goes all interactive in chronicling the massive increase in legislative filings in the last 20 years, Grissom talks about the criminalization of mental illness with an author who knows the subject first-hand, Philpott on closing the budget gap without federal stimulus money, Ramsey on everyone ignoring down-ballot candidates, Hu on the mysterious lack of Rick Perry yard signs and yours truly sits down with the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor: The best of our best from September 20 to 24, 2010. Full Story

Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman
Dependents' Day

By Julie Chang Sept. 23, 2010

Relief for young adults without health benefits may be on its way today, as several key provisions of federal health care reform take effect. The law mandates that insurers allow parents to enroll dependents up to age 26 regardless of their student status. Full Story

Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman
Witch Hunters?

By Morgan Smith Sept. 22, 2010

Talking point No. 1 for an elected official facing an ethics investigation in Texas: Blame the politicization of the Public Integrity Unit, which is funded by the Legislature but operates out of the district attorney's office in heavily Democratic Travis County. Full Story
TribBlog: Medicaid Reimbursement Change Halted

By Emily Ramshaw Sept. 21, 2010

The politically powerful hospital was poised to lose millions in Medicaid reimbursements under a hospital funding shuffle — until it reached out to lawmakers with its concerns. Full Story

Credit: Todd Wiseman
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

By Ross Ramsey Sept. 18, 2010

Ramsey on the fourth University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll (with insights into the statewide races, issues, the budget, and Texans' view of the national scene), Hamilton and Thevenot in Galveston on the anniversary of Hurricane Ike, Ramshaw on secret hearings that separate children from their guardians, Hu on what former state Rep. Bill Zedler did for doctor-donors who were under investigation, Aguilar on the troubles around Mexico's bicentennial, Galbraith talks coal and wind with the head of the Sierra Club, E. Smith interviews state Rep. Debbie Riddle about tourism babies and godless liberals, Grissom on why complaints about city jails go unaddressed, Philpott on the debate that will apparently never happen and Stiles continues to put the major-party gubernatorial candidates on the map: The best of our best from September 13 to 17, 2010. Full Story

Credit: Illustration by Jacob Villanueva
More Texans are Poor, Uninsured

By Mose Buchele, KUT News Sept. 17, 2010

Census Data released Thursday shows a troubling rise in the number of impoverished Americans and Texans — along with a shift in the number of Texans who have insurance. Mose Buchele of KUT News reports. Full Story
Protection or Exploitation?

By Emily Ramshaw Sept. 16, 2010

In the last year, Texas probate courts approved more than $6 million in payments from private estates to court-appointed attorneys, guardians and physicians, in many cases depleting funds left to care for incapacitated people. Critics say the practice amounts to destroying the village in order to save it. Probate judges say they're simply making sure people who can't defend themselves have proper representation. Full Story

Credit: Rory Pabon
Power Over Privacy

By Elise Hu Sept. 16, 2010

In the closing days of his last term in the Texas House, former state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, used his legislative authority to obtain confidential records from the Texas Medical Board, The Texas Tribune has learned. His reason? To defend doctors who he believes were wrongly the subjects of misconduct investigations by the board, which licenses the state's physicians. Full Story

Credit: AP/Harry Cabluck
TribBlog: Magistrate Says Tort Reform Not Unconstitutional

By Emily Ramshaw Sept. 14, 2010

A federal magistrate says the medical malpractice caps Texas lawmakers instituted in 2003 should withstand a constitutional challenge. Full Story
A Hardline in the Sand

By Ross Ramsey Sept. 14, 2010

Nearly half of all Texans would repeal the constitutional promise of citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil, and nearly two-thirds would favor Arizona-style laws allowing the police to ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop for any reason, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. Full Story
"A Workplace of Intimidation"

By Elise Hu Sept. 14, 2010

Was it a broken process or a breakdown in leadership that kept bad doctors from getting removed from the state workers' compensation system? Lawmakers sought to answer that question on Monday but left a House hearing with no clear understanding of why hundreds of potential enforcement actions stalled or disappeared entirely over the last half-decade. Full Story
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

By Evan Smith Sept. 11, 2010

Galbraith's three-parter on the battle over wind power transmission lines, Grissom on a convicted killer who got probation, Aguilar on how the U.S. census counts inmates in the Texas prison system, Stiles launches a new interactive tool tracking the candidates for governor, Hamilton on the Texas A&M University System's latest accountability measure for faculty, Hu's interview with Democratic megadonor Steve "Back to Basics" Mostyn, Philpott on how the Texas economy compares to that of other states and Ramsey on the start of the 2010 election sprint: The best of our best from Sept. 6 to 10, 2010. Full Story
Counting Convicts

By Julián Aguilar Sept. 9, 2010

Almost 157,000 inmates in the Texas prison system were counted by the U.S. Census Bureau as living where they're incarcerated and not as residents of their home counties — a policy that some opponents argue has dire political and economic consequences. Full Story

Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman
The Huddled Masses

By Reeve Hamilton Aug. 30, 2010

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana exiles have fundamentally changed Houston, and vice-versa. The uneasy arrangement was a shotgun marriage: Many evacuees had no choice in whether or where they went, and Houstonians had no choice, for humanity's sake, but to take them in. Full Story

Credit: Ammar Abd Rabbo
Pat Lykos: The TT Interview

By Brandi Grissom Aug. 27, 2010

The first female district attorney of Harris County on the massive scope of her job, softening her office's tough-on-crime reputation, the link between mental health care and criminal justice, why she set up a Post-Conviction Review Section and what she's learned from innocence cases so far. Full Story

Credit: Callie Richmond