COVID-19 funding halted rural hospital closures across Texas, until now
La Grange residents worked for months to try to save the 65-bed hospital and asked the city to step in with a loan, but it wasn’t enough. Full Story
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![An empty dining room is seen at St. Mark’s Medical Center Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023, in La Grange. Wednesday was the hospital’s last day of service before its scheduled closing on October 12.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
‘An understaffed and broken system’: 900,000 Texans have lost Medicaid as others struggle to access SNAP benefits
Texas Democrats in Congress are urging the federal government to audit the state’s Medicaid eligibility system Full Story
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![Yesenia Alvarado holds her daughter, Medicaid patient Melanie Almaraz, 2, while waiting to see Dr. Alberto Vasquez for treatment of a fever at Su Clinica Familiar in Harlingen, Texas on Jul. 9, 2013.]()
Credit: Eddie Seal for The Texas Tribune -
Texas parents see their own health spiral when kids’ mental illnesses worsen
The stress of locating and maintaining regular care for a mentally ill child can take a toll on their caretakers’ well-being. Full Story
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![Brandon Masters at his home in San Antonio. Masters spent about $22,000 last year caring for his teenage son Braylon, who has bipolar disorder. When Masters developed a rash on the back of his arms and neck last year, his doctor told him it was connected to stress.]()
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“Scared out of my mind”: A family scrambles after their disabled 3-year-old loses Medicaid
When Texas started scrubbing people from Medicaid after a three-year pause on removals during the pandemic, one family lost the insurance coverage that helped provide all treatments for their medically complex child. Full Story
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![Jodi Whites, 37, talks with her daughter Amelia, 3, outside their home in New Braunfels, on July 27, 2023. “Sometimes people will tell me ‘Oh, she doesn’t look sick’,” said Whites. “I tell them, ‘We paid extra for that’. No, really, this is what four years of Medicaid does for us. If we skip services for too long, the greater the chance she will relapse.”]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy for The Texas Tribune -
Confusion and stress abound for 500,000 Texans bumped from Medicaid
Continuous Medicaid coverage ended in April. Many of the roughly half-million people stripped from the rolls don’t even know they’ve lost coverage yet. Full Story
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![Maricela Delcid of ECHOS listens to a client as she begins the intake process at the E.C.H.O.S office in Houston on Thursday, July 20, 2023.]()
Credit: Douglas Sweet Jr. for The Texas Tribune -
500,000 Texans have been dropped from the Medicaid rolls since April
Advocates are calling for a halt to removals until the state can account for why more than 80% of the people who lost Medicaid coverage were eliminated for “procedural” reasons, like not responding to messages from the state. Full Story
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![Nurse Practitioner Anika Barber with a patient at the Legacy Community Health Center in Houston on Aug. 2, 2013.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
This year, Texas lawmakers zeroed in on existing health care programs, leaving bolder measures by the wayside
Pregnant moms on Medicaid will get health care coverage for a year, patients will get more detailed billing and nurses will get help with school loans. But efforts failed to gain steam for legalizing fentanyl test strips, increasing the pool of mental health professionals who accept Medicaid and expanding Medicaid benefits to more Texans. Full Story
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![Learning Tree owner Christa Marek holds her granddaughter at the Learning Tree childcare center in Yoakum, on Sept. 13, 2022.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Legislature passes bill to offer new moms a year of Medicaid coverage
The Texas House and Senate voted for the proposal, capping a yearslong effort to extend coverage for low-income moms. Medicaid covers half of all births in Texas, and coverage currently expires after two months. Full Story
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![Patients wait to be seen at the People's Community Clinic in Austin, on Nov. 8, 2010. Founded in 1970, the People's Community Clinic is a primary care center for the medically underserved and uninsured.]()
Credit: Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Senate OKs extending postpartum Medicaid — with an anti-abortion amendment
New moms will be able to keep their health insurance for a full year under a proposal the Senate passed Sunday. A last-minute anti-abortion amendment means the bill will go back to the House. Full Story
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![Patients wait to be seen at the People's Community Clinic in Austin on Nov. 8, 2010. Founded in 1970, the People's Community Clinic is a primary care center for the medically underserved and uninsured.]()
Credit: Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune -
Texans would get one year of Medicaid coverage after giving birth under bill advanced by Senate committee
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and advocates have thrown their support behind extending Medicaid coverage for a full year after childbirth. The full Senate will now have the opportunity to consider the bill, which has already passed the House. Full Story
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![Patients wait to be seen at the People's Community Clinic in Austin, which provides state-subsidized women's health services to low-income women, July 15, 2014.]()
Credit: Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House moves to expand Medicaid coverage to new moms for a year after childbirth
New moms would be able to maintain their health insurance for up to a year after childbirth under the proposal, which also passed the House last session. The Senate previously reduced it to just six months of coverage. Full Story
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![Patients wait to be seen at the People's Community Clinic in Austin, which provides state-subsidized women's health services to low-income women, July 15, 2014.]()
Credit: Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune -
Pandemic Medicaid coverage is ending. Here’s what that means for people using Medicaid health benefits.
Texas is reviewing the eligibility of people on Medicaid health plans or Healthy Texas Women now that pandemic Medicaid coverage is ending. Here’s what that means, how to renew your health coverage or find other options if you no longer qualify. Full Story
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![A nurse dons full PPE before entering the room of a COVID-19 patient at Goodall-Witcher Hospital in Clifton on Wednesday, August 3, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
“I love my babies. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy”: One mother’s struggle to survive in pro-life Texas
Pregnancy forced Destiny Williams to quit her job. She almost died during childbirth. Now with a newborn in tow, she’s struggling to build a more stable life for her and her children. Full Story
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![2/10/23, Pineland, Texas: Destiny Williams holds her three month old Irelynn inside her home in Pineland. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Texas Tribune -
Texans brace for the end of nearly three years of pandemic Medicaid coverage
Millions of Texans — mostly children, young adults and new moms — stayed on Medicaid for the duration of the pandemic. The state will soon start reevaluating eligibility. Full Story
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![Alexandria Robertson shows her daughters Novah and Kellani-Ari Wilson ultrasound pictures from her pregnancies in their home in Manor, TX on Feb. 2, 2023.]()
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Texas’ nursing homes are missing something: nurses
A dearth of nurses is leaving Texas seniors — especially in rural areas — without care. Full Story
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![Licensed vocational nurse Robert Lozoya talks about his responsibilities at Carillon’s 4th floor accelerated rehab clinic. Lazoya is an LVN at the Carillon Senior Living community in Lubbock.]()
Credit: Mark Rogers for The Texas Tribune -
Why Texas Republicans still oppose Medicaid expansion
More than two-thirds of Texans support Medicaid expansion. But on the eve of the midterm elections, the subject is still taboo for the state GOP. Why? Full Story
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![One of two surgical suites at Eastland Memorial Hospital.]()
Credit: Gary Rhodes for The Texas Tribune -
A free medical clinic opened in rural East Texas. Thousands poured in for help.
Texas ranks last among states in access to health care and has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country. Two longtime doctors in rural Henderson County created a homegrown safety net to fill the gap. Full Story
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![Doug Curran in his office at the East Texas Community Clinic in Athens last November. Curran helped open the safety-net clinic in 2020 after decades of practicing medicine in the rural area and seeing the fallout of Texas’ high uninsured rate. Credit: Blaine Young]()
Credit: Blaine Young/Public Health Watch -
TribCast: A crisis in Texas’ youth prisons
On this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Jolie about the problems within the Texas Juvenile Justice Department and with Eleanor about the state’s efforts to expand postnatal Medicaid. Full Story
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![Giddings State School, a Texas Juvenile Justice Department correctional facility, in Lee County on July 20, 2022.]()
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Texas health agency says its plan to extend maternal Medicaid coverage is “not approvable” by feds
HHSC said it was initially told the plan was “not approvable.” Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a statement Friday saying Texas’ plan to extend coverage to six months was not rejected but still under review. Full Story
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![A midwife cares for a newborn baby.]()
Credit: Natalia Ojewska for The Texas Tribune -
Texas officials celebrated end of abortion rights after cutting back postpartum Medicaid extension
Greg Abbott claimed Texas provides expectant mothers “necessary resources so that they can choose life for their child,” but it is now one of a dwindling number of states not to offer Medicaid coverage for a full year after residents give birth. Full Story
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![Connie Bunch with her 6-month-old son Aiden in her home in Austin, Texas, on July 6.]()
Credit: Montinique Monroe for ProPublica/The Texas Tribune