| Texas Physicians and Hospitals Join State Legislators to Ensure ...
AUSTIN, Texas, April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 400 Texas physicians, medical students, and hospital leaders rallied state legislators today to pass legislation that would provide health insurance to thousands of Texas children. Physician and hospital leaders from across the state joined state Reps. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston); House Bill 109 author, John Davis (R-Houston); Elliott Naishtat (D-Austin); and Patrick Rose (D-Dripping Springs) to encourage their colleagues to pass HB 109. The bill would restore 12 months of continuous coverage for kids in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), establish a more realistic asset test for working families, and remove the 90-day waiting period for uninsured children. Health care leaders believe restoring the cuts made to CHIP in 2003 is a critical and important first step in reducing the number of uninsured children.
Texas children deserve full advantages of CHIP
Iam not sure which is more disconcerting: that we lead the nation with 1.4 million children lacking health insurance; or that we forfeited $900 million of Texas federal matching funds to other states because we did not spend it on children's health in Texas. Or that in 2003 the state created an $899 million private sector contract to administer the Medicaid and CHIP programs (Children's Health Insurance Program) and then canceled the contract in 2007 because this provider could not keep up with the workload that had been created by doubling the reporting requirements in 2003. In light of the above, it is odd to hear from Austin that the real children's health issue is with "personal responsibility" on the part of the working poor because they cannot fill out their CHIP applications.
HealthMarkets Announces Newest Advisory Panel Members
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2007--HealthMarkets announced today the appointment of two new members to the Company's Regulatory Advisory Panel. Joining the panel are Susan Stead, a former Ohio Department of Insurance Assistant Director who has served in key roles at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and former Texas Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor. Stead will serve as the panel's chairwoman. HealthMarkets is a leading provider of affordable health and life insurance to the self-employed, individuals and small businesses through its subsidiaries, The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee and The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company. Stead and Montemayor join current advisory panel members Tommy Thompson, former Secretary of the U.S.
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