Way to be ahead of the curve, y’all. A resolution endorsing the expansion of Medicaid was approved by Texas Medical Association delegates Saturday at the group’s annual meeting in San Antonio. “The patients need the care and, if we pass Medicaid expansion, it will lower our taxes. How can you be against that?” said the [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Texas Medical Association’
TMA sort of endorses Medicaid expansion
Hard to say what this means. Trustees of the Texas Medical Association passed a resolution urging state leaders to snare all federal Medicaid matching dollars that are on the table. The group hinged its support, though, on simultaneous actions by state officials to make doctors’ participation in Medicaid more palatable and federal dispensations of flexibility [...]
Testifying about the Women’s Health Program
More hearings like this, please. The Texas Department of State Health Services got an earful today from lawmakers and women’s health advocates at a public meeting in Austin to discuss proposed rules for the Texas Women’s Health Program — specifically, the state’s plan to sacrifice 90 percent of federal funding for the program in order [...]
The first rule of women’s health
Is don’t talk about things that make certain Republicans queasy. A proposed state rule that would prohibit doctors in Texas’ Women’s Health Program from discussing the option of abortion with their patients — even if the patient asks about it — has drawn the opposition of Texas medical groups. The groups take issue specifically with [...]
Tort “reform” is still a scam
I know, I’m as shocked as you are. A national report released Wednesday says the 2003 Texas law that limited damage awards in malpractice suits has caused health care spending to rise and has not significantly increased the number of doctors in Texas. [...] The 24-page report by Public Citizen, “A Failed Experiment,” says that [...]
Spending money on medical students
I have two things to say about this story, which is about a budget rider that would concentrate the money the state spends on graduate medical residencies into the doctors’ first three years of training regardless of how long their residencies take to complete, which would have the effect of favoring general practitioners, who only [...]
Two smoking stories
Rep. Myra Crownover will make her biennial attempt to pass a statewide smoking ban in Texas, which if it passes would make it harder to smoke. Although she believes in limited government, Crownover said 53,000 people die each year in the U.S. from second-hand smoke, and that is unacceptable. “I think this is the most [...]
Get ready for another Medicaid lawsuit
That’s the very likely outcome if proposed cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates go through. “You cut rates an additional 10 percent, I’m not sure I can comply with the access provision,” Thomas Suehs, commissioner of the state Health and Human Services Commission, told the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday. He warned that short-term savings from [...]
More pushback from the medical community on Medicaid
Doctors and medical associations had a big effect on public opinion during the fight over the Affordable Care Act. We’ll see whether that is true during the fight over Medicaid. “Unless our state leaders can come up with a financing plan to replace the current Medicaid structure that’s even better than what we have now, [...]