Dan Leyendecker, Author at The Texas Tribune

As a measles outbreak exploded in Texas in February, local health officials struggled to reach CDC scientists who were grappling with changes under the new Trump administration, according to interviews and emails obtained by KFF Health News. The first three clips above are excerpts of emails from Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas. The bottom clip is from Scott Milton, at the Texas Department of State Health Services.

As measles exploded, West Texas officials looked to CDC scientists. No one answered.

By Amy Maxmen, KFF Health NewsAug. 26, 2025

Emails show how overwhelmed West Texas officials were as they asked CDC for guidance on how to respond to the explosive outbreak.

As the West Texas measles outbreak spread, Thang Nguyen of Galveston worried about his 4-year-old son, Anh Hoang, who had received only the first of the measles vaccine’s two doses. Nguyen took his family to a primary care clinic, where his son got his second shot. He was surprised when his insurer did not cover the vaccine — and its $1,400 price tag.

Health care

A Texas boy needed protection from measles. The vaccine cost $1,400.

By Julie Appleby, KFF Health NewsJuly 1, 2025

Because their insurance did not cover the cost of vaccinations, the family qualified for a variety of options to help lower the cost, but they were not offered assistance.

Health care

This mobile clinic is bringing birth control to rural South Texas

By Arielle Zionts, KFF Health NewsOct. 14, 2024

IUDs and other hormonal implants require training to administer and are expensive to stock, making them hard to come by in rural Texas.

First Lady Dr. Jill Biden listens as Dr. Laura Esserman, left, speaks at the University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center on Oct. 6, 2022. Esserman has created a California alternative to a San Antonio breast cancer conference because of Texas' laws criminalizing abortion.

Health care

Doctors are boycotting Texas conferences over abortion restrictions

By Ronnie Cohen, KFF Health NewsOct. 3, 2024

A breast cancer surgeon has created a California alternative to a major Texas event, while other medical conferences have left Louisiana and Arizona.

DiJuana Davis, with daughter Treasure Woodard, at home in Nashville, Tennessee. Davis is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit contesting the state’s Medicaid eligibility process. She and her children lost their coverage in 2019 after Tennessee launched a Deloitte-built eligibility system.

Health care

Medicaid management system in Texas and other states is plagued by errors

By Rachana Pradhan and Samantha Liss, KFF Health NewsJune 27, 2024

Deloitte-run systems have generated incorrect notices to Medicaid beneficiaries, sent paperwork to the wrong addresses, and been frozen for hours at a time, a KFF Health News investigation has found.

A herd of Texas cattle. H5N1, a strain of the bird flu virus detected in the Texas Panhandle, has spread to eight other states.

Health care

The race to uncover bird flu in the Texas Panhandle

By Amy Maxmen, KFF Health NewsMay 23, 2024May 23, 2024

Dairy farmers and veterinarians in northern Texas furiously investigated a mysterious illness among cattle before the government got involved. Farm cat deaths were the tip off.

Paxlovid, Pfizer's anti-viral medication to treat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is displayed in this picture illustration taken Oct. 7, 2022. A morning and an evening dose consists of one white 100-milligram tablet of Ritonavir and two pink 150-milligram tablets of PF-07321332.

Health care

Why covid patients who could most benefit from paxlovid still aren’t getting it

By Arthur Allen, KFF Health NewsMarch 13, 2024

During the pandemic, the federal government offered Americans a 5-day course of Paxlovid, the antiviral drug that lessens COVID-19 symptoms. But now that Pfizer is charging for it, confusion over insurance coverage, price, has made patients wary.

Tonjanic Hill lost a 2017 pregnancy at 19 weeks. Two years later, she was pregnant again with twins. This time, she was on bed rest for months and had to have an emergency cesarean section at 34 weeks. The twins, though premature, are now preschoolers.

Health care

Dangers and deaths around Black pregnancies in Texas seen as a “completely preventable” health crisis

By Sandy West, KFF Health NewsAug. 29, 2023

Despite a vast array of health resources, Black infants in Harris County are about twice as likely to die before their first birthday as those from other racial groups.