After just four months on the job, Texas’ new top public health bureaucrat has said he doesn’t believe in Texas’ high uninsurance numbers, blames good weather for Texans’ ill health, and has hired an adviser who hates children’s Medicaid. Welcome to the future of public health care in Texas.
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State health officials in Texas say asking women a few questions can dramatically decrease their alcohol use during pregnancy.
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As the New York Times reports today, Republican lawmakers in New York, who see it as their “mission” to block heath reform, have blocked the state from applying for large amounts of federal assistance to create health insurance exchanges, which are mandatory under the law.
Nearly four in ten Latinos are uninsured. “Si se puede…” can mean “IF she can…” and this conditional statement hints at the obstacles that remain after the HHS decision. IF a Latina can get health insurance, IF she can make it to a provider’s office who can provide culturally-competent care in her language, and IF she can obtain and fill her prescription, THEN she will be able to fully enjoy the benefits of no-copay birth control.
If you are following the floor debate on C-Span over the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA) in the House of Representatives, you know that members of the new Republican majority really want to get rid of the health reform bill signed into law last year. You also know the are really against government-sponsored health care. Unless it covers them.
Opponents of health reform are stating that millions of Americans will lose their employer-based coverage under a public option. What they don’t tell you is that employers can stop offering coverage at any time with no fallback.
Even as opponents of health reform use the specter of “losing your employer-based coverage” under a public option, many busineses are in fact planning to cut coverage without any health reform in place. Meanwhile, after months of closed door meetings the Senate Finance committee releases a bill with not one Republican co-sponsor. And Operation Rescue tells its supporters it is “broke.”
Census data from 2008 show an increase in the number of women who have lost income, lost private coverage and are falling into poverty. The increase in the number of women without coverage stems from the continued erosion of private insurance –- primarily through the loss of job-based coverage–even before the worst of the economic crisis hit.
