More than 300,000 Texans could lose food assistance benefits under proposed changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to statistics from Governing Magazine. The estimated 302,800 Texans affected is the highest number of vulnerable SNAP recipients in any state in the nation, according to the magazine…
In just over a decade, Texas is headed for a major nursing shortage, according to a new report. Nursing, the largest health care profession in the U.S., is also one of the nation’s fastest growing professions according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But by 2030, the state of Texas…
Tuesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a mixed judgment on one of the most controversial abortion laws to reach the court since it heard Hellerstedt v. Texas in 2016. Indiana’s rule that all aborted fetuses in the state must be buried or cremated is back in effect, thanks to…
More than 25% of Texas women between ages 18 and 44 don’t have health insurance coverage. That’s one of the biggest takeaways from a new study into the effects of Medicaid expansion on maternal health from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Texas’ uninsured rate for women of child-bearing age…
Barring an upset, Texas looks poised to become the 14th state to raise its smoking age, after the Texas House passed an amended version of a Senate bill raising the state’s tobacco-use age on Tuesday. Under the bill, the purchasing age for all tobacco products in the state would be…
A former University of Texas All-American and U.S. National Team swimmer sued a Dallas clinic Tuesday, claiming a multivitamin she bought from the clinic led to a 2018 doping suspension. FINA, international swimming’s governing body, suspended Madisyn Cox for two years in March 2018 after she tested positive for trimetazidine,…
Tarrant County is the latest area in North Texas to have a resident come down with measles, county health officials said Thursday. The unnamed county resident makes 14 confirmed cases in Texas and four in North Texas so far in 2019, more than in the last four years combined. According…
If you’re lucky enough, you may have seen one of the ads from the Texas Senate Republican Caucus on Facebook. Accompanied by the image of a white, blue-eyed little boy is a plea from the caucus for the person reading the ad to support Senate Bill 23, the “Texas Born-Alive…
Second-trimester abortions increased 13 percent in Texas in the aftermath of 2013’s House Bill 2 despite abortions decreasing by 18 percent generally, a study published Tuesday in Obstetrics & Gynecology shows. Overall, women seeking abortions were forced to wait an average of one week more to get an abortion after…
It might not matter — all the teens are vaping pot now anyway — but a bipartisan group of Texas legislators is pushing a plan to raise the state’s tobacco purchasing age from 18 to 21, making anyone who wants to look cool while slowly killing themselves wait three more…
Monday was a weird time to be celebrating for Planned Parenthood. The venerable reproductive rights advocacy organization and healthcare provider faces attacks from all sides. President Donald Trump wants to strip the organization of millions in federal funding; multiple speakers at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference accused abortion providers…
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton never met a piece of the Affordable Care Act he wasn’t going to doggedly try to take off the books. The latest example, promoted Tuesday by Paxton’s office, is an attempt by Texas and seven other states to permanently block federal regulations protecting the trans…
Dallas County health officials announced late Friday that an 89-year-old Dallas resident is the sixth person in the county to succumb to the flu this month. Dallas County Health and Human Services doesn’t release any additional information about virus or infection victims. Each of the six Dallas County deaths this…
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rolled out the state’s next big plan to save Texans from U.S.’ ongoing opioid epidemic Tuesday afternoon: A website and some seriously weird stock photography. “The misuse and abuse of prescription opioids cost lives and devastate Texas families in every region of our state,” Paxton…
Two adults are the first Dallas County residents to die from the flu this season, Dallas County Health and Human Services officials announced Wednesday afternoon. The two victims were 59 and 66 years old, according to the county, which does not provide any additional identifying information about those who succumb…
The headline — “Fort Worth Judge Strikes Down Affordable Care Act” — was easy enough to understand, at least on its face, Friday evening. The potential fallout was harder to break down. Yes, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, handpicked by the Texas Attorney General’s Office to hear its claims that…
More adult Texans, and a higher percentage of them, are without health insurance than anywhere else in the United States, the Observer reported in September. A new report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families shows that kids in the state are no better off. More than 835,000 Texas…
Few things can cause a greater sense of sticker shock in America than getting the bill for a bottle of pills not covered by insurance. A 2016 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that Americans spend $458 more per capita on prescription drugs compared with…
Those people knocking on Dallas County doors with a badge and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ID aren’t late trick-or-treaters vying for extra candy. They’re health examiners from the CDC gathering data for a national health survey known for developing understanding of national health conditions. The National Health and…
The Texas Legislature’s 2017 “sanctuary cities” bill, which requires local law enforcement and elected officials to cooperate with federal immigration authorities or face loss of state funding or removal from office, is already harming the health of Texas children and their families, according to new research from Human Impact Partners,…
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission announced Friday afternoon that it is ending its contract with an anti-abortion group receiving millions from the state to provide women’s health services as part of multiple programs. The Heidi Group, according to the state, repeatedly failed to serve the number of patients…
After four straight years of Affordable Care Act-inspired gains, Texas’ uninsured rate for adults took a step back in 2017, according to newly released numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. About 4.8 million Texas adults, 17.3 percent of the population, do not have health insurance, up from 4.5 million and…
