The latest Medicaid news from The Texas Tribune.
Along the Texas-Mexico border, colonias residents tell identical stories: of migrating with dreams of safety and prosperity, of getting swindled into buying worthless land, of sticking it out so their children will get educated. And of getting sick. Full Story
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Tan on how it all came out in the special session, Tan and Dehn on what the Tea Party folks thought of the results, Aguilar on Rick Perry's uneasy relationship with Latinos, Root on Perry's past positions on various controversies and how those would figure into a presidential race, Ramshaw on a $90 million health care mistake, yours truly on the candidates falling out of the race for the U.S. Senate, Hamilton's exit interview with former University of Texas advisor Rick O'Donnell, Grissom on Anthony Graves' payday, and Galbraith on the Texas drought's effect on hallowed athletic grounds: The best of our best content from June 27 to July 1, 2011. Full Story
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You can let your children out of the storm cellar — the Texas Legislature has gone home. Better still, our insiders don't think lawmakers will be back in session before January 2013, when the 83rd Legislature will convene. Full Story
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The Trib's been keeping track of the key issues throughout the special session. From budget measures to school finance, health care and airport groping, here's our final rundown of bills that passed, and the ones that died. Full Story
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Attribute it to a Teflon coating, to his decisive win in a divided primary last year, or to luck, but Gov. Rick Perry is coming out of the 82nd legislative session without many bruises. Full Story
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Lawmakers must wrap up the special session on Wednesday, with a few outstanding priorities left to tackle. Here's a rundown of where the Texas Legislature stands going into the second-to-last day of the special session. Full Story
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House and Senate lawmakers have approved the conference committee report for SB 7, an omnibus health reform bill loaded with amendments, some of them controversial. Full Story
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A glitch in the federal health reform bill that would make many middle-class Americans eligible for Medicaid could cost Texas nearly $90 million a year by 2017, according to a state analysis. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry’s neon-light promotion on the national stage of the $6 billion left in the Rainy Day Fund exposes a disconnect with the conservative lawmakers battling for his principles at home, where his party is working to divert negative public sentiment about the deep budget reductions. Full Story
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Children on Medicaid under the age of three will not be prescribed powerful anti-psychotic drugs without a special authorization, under new rules the state Health and Human Services Commission implemented last week. Full Story
The Tribune counts down to the end of the special session with updates on where the major issues added to the agenda by Gov. Rick Perry stand. Full Story
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Senate lawmakers pushed a ban on smoking in public places out of committee this afternoon, sending it to the full upper chamber for a vote. Full Story
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Brace yourselves. There's still a possibility it won't happen, but brace yourselves nevertheless, because in some ways it’s happening already. Full Story
House lawmakers gave early approval to a bill designed to let Texas take control of Medicaid and Medicare from the federal government after a high-decibel argument between the measure’s Republican author and Democratic lawmakers. Full Story
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The Texas House passed a bill today to take control of Texas health care reform, tentatively passing a bill that will allow the state to petition the Obama administration for a block grant to operate the Medicaid program. Full Story
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Like the swaggering rooster who believes the sun came up because of all that crowing, he takes credit for the good things that happened on his watch when they would have happened anyway — but the real problem is what he hasn't done. Full Story
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In hours of debate this afternoon, House lawmakers used an omnibus health care bill as their last-ditch effort to get other medical measures that failed during the regular session passed during the special session. Full Story
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The health reform bill House lawmakers considered today has drawn an unexpected band of supporters: abortion opponents. The measure contains a provision aimed at doing what GOP lawmakers have fought to do all year: restrict funding to Planned Parenthood. Full Story
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GOP lawmakers have gone to great lengths to try to force Planned Parenthood out of Texas’ Medicaid Women’s Health Program. The Obama administration may have headed off their plans. Full Story
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The Legislature finished on Monday and came back on Tuesday to do in a few days what they could not accomplish in 140 Full Story