Physicians Speak out on Health Care Bill
from The Houston Chronicle, Aug. 6, 2009
Physicians jammed a town hall meeting in The Woodlands, expressing fears about the cost and effectiveness of a health care reform bill that could come up for a vote in Congress as early as September. U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, hosted the meeting attended by about 90 physicians at Memorial Hermann Hospital-The Woodlands. More

Medical Errors Poorly Documented
from The San Antonio Express News, Aug. 11, 2009
For the past six years, Texas has fumbled attempts to establish a medical error reporting system, often leaving people to discover errors the hard way - when a mistake costs them their livelihood or the life of a loved one. "We need error reporting, but we need it in a way where we can do something about it, not just where we report it," said Dr. Josie R. Williams, a gastroenterologist and former president of the Texas Medical Association. More

Opinion: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare
from The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 11, 2009
While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction - toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone. More

Opinion: When Taking On Health Care Reform, First, Do No Harm
from The Houston Chronicle, Aug. 7, 2009
Primum non nocere. First, do no harm. So much of the health system reform jargon sounds like Latin. It seems appropriate to use a long-held medical aphorism to guide our debate about this critically important public policy. As physicians, our primary goal is to improve our patients' health and to put our patients' interests first. We take an oath to not only do good for our patients but also to do no harm. This, we trust, is the goal of our legislators as well. More

Survey Finds High Fees Common in Medical Care
from The New York Times, Aug. 12, 2009
A patient in Illinois was charged $12,712 for cataract surgery. Medicare pays $675 for the same procedure. In California, a patient was charged $20,120 for a knee operation that Medicare pays $584 for. And a New Jersey patient was charged $72,000 for a spinal fusion procedure that Medicare covers for $1,629. The charges came out of a survey sponsored by America’s Health Insurance Plans in which insurers were asked for some of the highest bills submitted to them in 2008. More

Texas Laws Move High School PE in Wrong Direction
from The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Aug. 6, 2009
Here's a paradox. Elementary and middle school physical education programs continue to improve. More physical educators are applying successful movement education and skills approach models in the K-8 setting. At the same time, there is less physical education in high schools and less expected of older students. More

Dallas Representative Pete Sessions Fields Health Care Questions at Richardson Town Hall Meeting
from The Dallas Morning News, Aug, 6, 2009
About 800 people attended a town hall meeting in Richardson in which constituents peppered Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions with questions on a proposed health care overhaul. The meeting came as President Barack Obama is pushing his support for health care reform while members of Congress return home to their districts for recess. More

Has Perry Improved Texans' Health Care?
from The Austin American-Statesman, Aug. 9, 2009
When asked recently about Democrats' national effort to reform health care, Gov. Rick Perry said states should be left to find their own solutions. But his critics say Perry has not solved many of the state's health care problems in his nine years as governor. More

Chisum to Receive Award
from KVII-TV, Aug. 10, 2009
Rep. Warren Chisum from Pampa will be honored for a historic program to bring more doctors to the Panhandle. The new Physician Loan Repayment Program is expected to attract 900 new doctors to Texas over the next 4 years. More

Texas Health Officials Gird for Swine, Seasonal Flu
from The Dallas Morning News, Aug. 11, 2009
Texas health officials are preparing for the double-whammy this fall of the swine flu and the seasonal flu, saying they have better knowledge now about the H1N1 epidemic and can better tackle the illness and the fears about it. More

The Democrats' Senior Problem
from Politico, Aug. 12, 2009
Democrats have a senior citizen problem. Frustrated older Americans are packing the town halls on health care. They are incredibly passionate about their Medicare benefits. Polls show senior citizens largely disapprove of health care reform ideas so far. And of course, they vote - in larger numbers than any other demographic. More

Autism Activists Question H1N1 Vaccine
from The Daily Texan, Aug. 12, 2009
Health experts are warning about the serious long term effects of a vaccine expected to become available within the next few months that would combat Swine Flu, a virus associated with more than 430 deaths this year. Doses of the vaccine could contain two controversial compounds: thimerosal and squalene, said Peter McCarthy, chair of the Texas Health Freedom Coalition, a natural health lobbyist organization More