RURAL HEALTH

A rural hospital hasn’t closed in Texas since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March 2020. That could change as federal relief ends.

In this week’s episode, Texas Tribune regional editor Nic Garcia guest-hosts from Texas Tech University for a discussion about the issues facing the rural residents of the state.

A dearth of nurses is leaving Texas seniors — especially in rural areas — without care.

Downtowns are deserted, hospitals are closing, teachers are leaving. Every part of life in rural Texas is harder — but it’s worth saving.

Before abortion was legal in parts of Mexico, an extensive “accompaniment” system grew to help women safely terminate pregnancies on their own. Its organizers are now moving abortion-inducing medication across the border and helping replicate the system in the United States.

Antes de que el aborto fuera legal en algunos estados de México, los grupos de “acompañamiento” establecieron un sistema de apoyo para que las mujeres interrumpieran sus embarazos en casa. Ahora, estos grupos están ayudando a trasladar al norte de la frontera medicamento para abortar y a replicar este modelo en los Estados Unidos.

Lawmakers also discussed their stances on the issues impacting the region the most in a two-day event hosted by The Texas Tribune.

Through speeches, signs and chants, protesters across the state expressed their concerns Friday about the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Advocates say abortion has often been the safest option for many experiencing intimate partner violence.

The COVID-19 pandemic also cut down on clinics’ revenue and underscored broadband access disparities in rural Texas, health care providers said in a conversation with The Texas Tribune.

Hospitals and other health care providers in Texas, which has the lowest rate of insurance coverage in the nation, have gotten some $1.8 billion in federal help for uninsured COVID-19 patients.

The good news is that no rural hospitals in Texas have closed in the last two years. The bad news? They’re still in crisis mode, and the state government is still struggling to find a remedy.

COVID-19 numbers are plummeting statewide, but on Texas’ southern border with Mexico, Laredo is still battling its fourth surge.

Hospitalizations related to the virus remain low in the state, but the number of people testing positive is rising and once again fueling worries about the struggling health care system’s ability to weather a new surge.

A Houston vaccine team would like a U.S. distributor but for now focuses its efforts abroad to inoculate those in countries where COVID-19 variants surface more quickly.

The small districts aren’t fighting Gov. Greg Abbott’s mask rules, but fears for staff, students and local medical facilities are driving them to fight COVID-19 with temporary closures.

The bill would let counties and cities apply to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for funds that were declined by their states.

Worried about a possible resurgence of COVID-19 infections, doctors Carolyn Salter and her husband, Michael Gorby, have taken it upon themselves to get lagging vaccination rates up in rural East Texas.