Issues with Medicaid coverage, including long wait times, abrupt loss of coverage and lack of political will to expand it, have contributed to Texas’ high uninsured rate for children.
Claire Cardona
Posted in
Health care
A slow killer: East Texans are diagnosed with diabetes at a higher rate than the national average
Health care workers in East Texas said easier access to health insurance — such as Medicaid — could help drive down the number of people living with uncontrolled diabetes.
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Energy
For Texans, fighting state-regulated oilfield waste dumps can be a costly, do-it-yourself effort
Some Texans who challenge oil and gas waste sites must spend significant sums and time on investigating what they say the Texas Railroad Commission should examine. Will new regulations for handling waste increase oversight or just maintain the status quo?
Posted in
Energy
Houston-area chemical fire highlights gaps in Texas environmental enforcement
A fire broke out at a Deer Park Shell plant the day after a public hearing on renewing the permit for ITC, a nearby facility that caught fire in 2019, sparking a Texas Tribune/Public Health Watch investigation that documented failures in state and federal oversight.
Posted in
Investigations
For years, the EPA and Texas ignored warning signs at a chemical storage site. Then an inferno erupted.
Regulators repeatedly documented — but did little to address — problems at a Houston-area tank farm. Then on March 17, 2019, a fire blew through a corner of the facility, releasing toxic chemicals into nearby communities for weeks.
Posted in
Demographics
The Rio Grande Valley is at the epicenter of an Alzheimer’s spike among Latinos and is now the focus of new research efforts
Compared to other large states, fewer state dollars go to Alzheimer’s disease services in Texas. Now with more national attention on research here, could that change?
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Health care
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?
Posted in
Health care
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.
Posted in
Environment
Nearly all unplanned chemical releases in Texas go unpunished
Thousands of “emissions events” from chemical plants each year exceed permitted limits, but only a small fraction result in penalties from the state’s environmental agency.
Posted in
Demographics
Child Abuse Reports Up as Economy Falters
Experts speculate that a key factor in the increase in reports of child abuse and neglect is the struggling economy. The number of reported cases of abuse has grown 6 percent in Texas since 2008, before the recession.