Tagged: Health

Despite Gov. Rick Perry’s firm opposition to a key tenet of federal health reform — expanding the state’s Medicaid program for those with low incomes — Texas Democrats remain optimistic that the 2013 legislative session can yield a deal that brings in billions in additional federal dollars.

It will be a tough sell: No Republican lawmakers have gone on record supporting the Medicaid expansion, which would add an estimated 1.8 million Texans onto the joint state-federal health plan by 2022.

But state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said fiscal conservatives have an incentive to reach an agreement “because the alternative is going to cost us much more economically and dig a much deeper hole in our budget.”

UT Medicine San Antonio and the University Health System are kicking off a screening program for Hepatitis C among baby boomer patients at University Hospital. The CDC now recommends everyone born in the years from 1945 to 1965 be tested. 

Bexar County has inked a deal that will give residents a discount on prescription drugs and add funds to another county health program.

The Coast-2-Coast RX Card is free to anyone, and Martin Dettelbach of Financial Marketing Concepts Inc., said it's similar to other prescription discount cards. He said his company has worked out agreements with pharmaceutical companies based on volume.