New research from Avalere finds that under the American Health Care Act (AHCA), low-income individuals who purchase insurance on an exchange would lose access to cost sharing subsidies that help make accessing healthcare affordable. In a nutshell, the AHCA as written will lead to higher costs for low income...
I am honored to be part of the Code Red Task Force, a non-partisan volunteer group from across the State of Texas, which includes members who are interested in healthcare delivery, public health, mental health, health workforce and health policy as well as representatives from business and the community.
We...
The Texas Tribune headline, unfortunately, says it all: Medicaid Budget Kicks Can Down Road, Experts Say. We as a state had the opportunity to address many of the dire situations facing Texas families and futures, and we as a state just shrugged, and decided to let somebody else become...
The rush to gather support for legislation can leave the truth behind. Speaker Paul Ryan claims that the MacArthur amendment to the American Health Care Act (AHCA) protects people with pre-existing conditions while lowering premiums. Let us look at each of Speaker Ryan’s “verified” claims one-by-one and explore why...
A frequent push-back against expanding health coverage to all is "the poor and the uninsured have a safety net," and often accompanies the poor advice: "they can go to the ER." Passing over, for a moment, the terrible consequences of using hospital Emergency Rooms as primary care providers, let's...
A dozen Texas hospitals have closed their doors recently. Not simply gone on "drive by," the condition where the ER is so busy hospitals tell ambulances to drive somewhere else. No, these Texas hospitals - often in rural areas where care is hardest to find - have ceased operations....
Guest post by Elena Marks, health policy scholar at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Health
Houston Chronicle, May 13, 2013
As Texas lawmakers debate whether to accept billions of federal dollars to insure 1.5 million low-income adults through Medicaid, the conversation inevitably includes concerns about the program's increasing cost.
"Our Medicaid...
I am a native Texan; and have always been proud to call Texas home. We pride ourselves on being pragmatic, problem-solving leaders of the United States. However, recently, there are some aspects of being a Texan that don’t make me proud. To be precise: Texas' health care policies don't...