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The latest Medicaid news from The Texas Tribune.

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Galbraith on energy conservation and basketball, Ramshaw (and Serafini of Kaiser News) on what would happen if states abandoned Medicaid, Hallman on cities and counties lobbying the feds (and a Stiles data app visualizing what they're spending), Aguilar on legislative attempts to stop human trafficking, Aaronson on cuts in Senate office spending, Philpott on the latest run at a Senate rule that empowers political minorities, yours truly on how the GOP landslide will change the way things work at the Capitol, Hu catches the first day of bill filing and finds immigration at the top of the agenda and Hamilton on a wobbly partnership between two Texas universities: The best of our best from November 8 to 12, 2010. Full Story 

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  • The Opt-Out Option

    By Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune, and Marilyn Serafini, Kaiser Health News

    A week after newly emboldened Republicans in the Texas Legislature floated a radical cost-saving proposal — withdrawing from the federal Medicaid program — health care experts, economists and think tanks are trying to determine just how possible it would be. The answer? It’s complicated. But it’s not stopping nearly a dozen other states, frantic over budget shortfalls and anticipating new costs from federal health care reform, from exploring something that was, until recently, unthinkable. Full Story 

    The waiting room at People's Community Clinic in Austin, TX in November 2010.
    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • No More Medicaid?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Some Republican lawmakers are proposing an unprecedented solution to the state’s massive budget shortfall: opting out of the federal Medicaid program. But experts say the rhetoric may be more of a middle finger to Washington than sound public policy. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • Election Days

    By Ross Ramsey

    Twice as many people showed up for the first three days of early voting in the state's top 15 counties as came out four years ago, according to the Texas Secretary of State. Through the end of the day Wednesday (there's a lag in the reporting and those were the latest numbers as we published), 435,007 people had voted, compared with 219,436 four years ago. As a percentage of registered voters, that's 5.22 percent this year as opposed to 2.7 percent four years ago. Early voting continues for another week. During the 2006 gubernatorial election, 13.2 percent of the registered voters in those top 15 counties voted early. Full Story 

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Hu on freshman House Democrats trying to win re-election in a Republican year, Grissom on Republicans bolstered by those same political trends, Aguilar on slow reforms in immigrant detention programs, Chang on the trouble with synthetic marijuana, Ramshaw on how proposed cuts in state Medicaid services could affect 13,000 Texans, yours truly on how political polls have as much to do with who's counted as with what they say, Galbraith on why Texas is building coal plants in spite of tightening federal air pollution standards, Hamilton on community colleges accusing the University of Texas of siphoning money from their financial wells, M. Smith on the court of inquiry proposed for a death penalty case and how it would work, and E. Smith interviews U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess about federal health care: The best of our best from Oct. 11 to 15, 2010. Full Story 

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  • A Hole in the Safety Net

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Advocates say the Department of Aging and Disability Services’ baseline budget request eliminates financing for more than 13,000 people — the majority waiting to receive Medicaid waiver services. Agency officials will only say that an “unknown number” of people already receiving the services could lose them. It's unclear if lawmakers can make these cuts without risking losing federal funding; federal health care reform requires states to maintain coverage at the same level it was when the Affordable Care Act became law in March. Full Story 

    Barbara Cullison does her daughter Audrey's hair. Audrey, who is autistic, risks losing her Medicaid waiver services because of state budget cuts.
    Credit: Wenjing Zhang

  • Clay Boatright: The TT Interview

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The new president of the Arc of Texas on why the disability community’s rallying cry to close state-supported living centers has become trite and ineffective, why the movement's messaging should be upgraded (employing everything from the iPad to the Bible) and why businesses and faith-based groups should be mobilized to fill the gaping holes in government services. Full Story 

    Clay Boatright, the new president of the Arc of Texas
    Credit: Emily Ramshaw

  • In the Soup?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    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 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Dependents' Day

    By Julie Chang

    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 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Witch Hunters?

    By Morgan Smith

    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 

    Former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and former Travis County D.A. Ronnie Earle.

  • More Texans are Poor, Uninsured

    By Mose Buchele, KUT News

    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 

  • The Huddled Masses

    By Reeve Hamilton

    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 

    'Astrodome' stadium filled with refugees from Louisiana in Houston, Texas, USA, on September 3, 2005.
    Credit: Ammar Abd Rabbo

  • Pat Lykos: The TT Interview

    By Brandi Grissom

    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 

    District Attorney for Harris County, Pat Lykos.
    Credit: Callie Richmond

  • A Turf War Over Mental Health

    By Brian Thevenot

    The intent of the law seemed clear: The state’s 39 MHMRs would, wherever possible, stop offering direct medical services and start managing networks of private providers. But a bureaucratic scrum has delayed the privatization of care. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Galbraith on grass, federal money and efforts to prevent another dust bowl, Ergenbright on school suspensions and who gets punished; Aguilar's interview with Alan Bersin, whose job is to keep the U.S./Mexico border secure, M. Smith on why it would be harder than you think to ditch the 14th Amendment, Adler and me on whether controversy is politically contagious, Ramshaw on the flap over funding for the state's institutions for the disabled (it's not about the money), my meditation on the state's fiscal woes (including a $1.3 billion deficit in the current budget), Philpott on proposed cuts to the state's food stamp program, Grissom on the push by Hidalgo County officials for a special election that might not be legal; Hamilton on the seven Texas universities that are making a play for Tier One status and Stiles on the mid-year cash-on-hand numbers reported by campaigns and political action committees: The best of our best from August 16 to 23, 2010. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Obstacles in the Path

    By Julián Aguilar

    At a House hearing Wednesday, lawmakers learned that undocumented immigrants have almost no way to earn permanent residency status in the U.S. through employment and that a much-touted system to verify that employees can legally work here is flawed. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Good Money After Bad?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    In the wake of high-profile incidents of abuse, state health officials want to boost payments to Texas' institutions for the disabled by $25,000 per patient per year. But the proposed Medicaid rate change has drawn the ire of Texas’ disability community, which wants to see the facilities shuttered rather than propped up. Full Story 

    Austin State-Supported Living Center.
    Credit: Todd Wiseman