Texas Insight’s Recent Reports
- DSHS: Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response: The Texas Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response met for the first time since November of 2016. The Task Force is required to provide expert, evidence-based assessments, protocols, and recommendations related to state responses to infectious diseases, as well as serve as a source of information and education.
Federal Healthcare Reports
- Health Care for Dependents and Survivors of Veterans: The Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) was established by the Veterans Health Care Expansion Act of 1973. CHAMPVA is primarily a health insurance program where certain eligible dependents and survivors of veterans receive care from private sector healthcare providers. The program is administered by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Office of Community Care, located in Denver, CO.
Federal Healthcare News
- Seeking Cheaper Health Insurance, Idaho Bucks Affordable Care Act: Idaho insurance regulators, under an executive order issued by the governor, have proposed offering a stripped-down, cheaper version of health coverage that legal experts say would violate the Affordable Care Act. Related: Trump Administration Blocks Idaho’s Plan to Circumvent Health Law: The Trump administration rejected on Thursday Idaho’s plan to allow the sale of stripped-down, low-cost health insurance that violates the Affordable Care Act.
- Health Officials Assail ‘Pricing Schemes’ That Gouge Patients: Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, said doctors and hospitals should disclose costs to patients before they were treated.
- Frail, Old and Dying, but Their Only Way Out of Prison Is a Coffin: Federal inmates who are aging or very sick can ask for “compassionate release.” Hundreds have died waiting for an answer.
- Angola Prison Lawsuit Poses Question: What Kind of Medical Care Do Inmates Deserve?: Prisoners have a constitutional right to health care, but inmates at Angola prison in Louisiana are suing for medical shortfalls that have allegedly caused ‘needless pain and suffering.’
- Planned Parenthood defunding threatens government spending package: House Republicans are demanding a series of controversial abortion and health care policies in the annual health spending bill, setting up a showdown with Democrats and threatening passage of an omnibus spending package to keep the government open.
- Mississippi ready to impose nation’s earliest abortion ban: Mississippi is set to impose the toughest abortion restrictions in the country, and the state’s lone remaining clinic is vowing to sue.
- House to vote Tuesday on ‘right to try’ drug bill: The House will vote Tuesday on a newly released Right to Try Act aimed at letting very sick patients request access to treatments the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn’t yet approved.
- Trump admin looking into policy allowing death penalty for drug dealers: report:The Trump administration is reportedly examining a new policy that could make drug dealers eligible for the death penalty. The Justice Department and the president’s Domestic Policy Council are looking into policy changes that could allow prosecutors to pursue the death penalty for drug deals, and an announcement could come within weeks, The Washington Post reported
- Utah moves forward with controversial Medicaid proposal: Utah would partially expand its Medicaid program to cover almost 70,000 additional people under a bill that has passed the state legislature. The bill would require the state to submit a request for the Trump administration to impose work requirements on certain Medicaid recipients. But Utah would only expand coverage to people earning up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level and would still expect the Trump administration to pay its share of the costs.