Action Update - Issue 78 :: September 19, 2006
Preparing For A Disaster
Texas Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) is a collaborative educational network dedicated to educating citizens about disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Texas EDEN is a joint effort between the Texas Cooperative Extension and the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and is affiliated with National EDEN.
This site is intended to accommodate Extension agents and all Texas citizens by sharing education resources to reduce the impact of natural and man-made disasters for individuals, families and communities.
Preparing for the Unexpected is an online booklet to help Texans get informed, get prepared and get involved before a disaster or emergency situation occurs.
The Tax Equity and Affordability Act:
A Solution for the Uninsured
by Nina Owcharenko - The Heritage Foundation
Congress can no longer afford to ignore the changing dynamics in health care coverage. The latest Census Bureau report shows that the number of uninsured increased from 45.3 million in 2004 to 46.6 million in 2005.1 Moreover, the percent of people with employer coverage is still declining, dropping from 59.8 percent in 2004 to 59.5 percent in 2005.2
Failure to address these changing dynamics reinforces the status quo, which ultimately leads the uninsured to depend on an inefficient and disjointed system of uncompensated care and creates political pressure to expand government-run health care programs—both at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
Lawmakers—especially those interested in preventing the incremental expansion of government control over the personal lives of American citizens— need to create an innovative alternative to the status quo. The new policy should be based on the free-market principles of consumer choice and competition, which leverage the enormous potential of private health insurance.
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Insurer Drops Rates Again
The state's largest provider of medical malpractice insurance for doctors has dropped its rates again because it's more difficult to sue doctors for huge sums of money.
The 7.5 percent rate decrease by the Texas Medical Liability Trust is the latest of several by insurers in recent years. Rates had more than doubled earlier in the decade as insurance companies struggled with their investments in a down economy and lawsuits against doctors drained capital reserves.
<SAEN Report>
Keeping Texans Talking
commentary by Ray Perryman, PhD
I don’t have to tell you that times are changing. There is no place where that is more apparent than in the way we communicate with one another. Change is inevitable and desirable, but it can bring about difficulties during transition phases. Competition and technological advances in communications have brought lower prices, remarkable innovations, and a knitting together of the world in a way that we wouldn’t have imagined a few years ago.
The evolution in telecomm is now necessitating updating of the regulations to govern the industry, and Texas lawmakers are facing notable decisions in the years to come to help restructure the state’s regulatory framework to fit the dynamic markets of today.
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RECOMMENDED READING
- Global Cooling Effect
A report in New Scientist magazine yesterday chronicles the work of a crew of scientists who forecast a new wave of global cooling brought on by a decline in activity in the sun. Dramatic global temperature fluctuations, as New Scientist reports, are the norm. (Al Gore can retire now!)
- Big House Blues
Offenders who follow a rigorous regiment of treatment, counseling, and testing would be diverted from prison or jail. This is a proven approach.
- Losing My Religion? No, Says Baylor Religion Survey
Conventional wisdom, backed by some research, has suggested that the United States is becoming a more secularized nation - one where the significance of religion is declining. But results released Sept. 11 paint a different picture.
INFORMATION:
Janelle Shepard, Executive Director
Texans for Texas, Inc., 815-A Brazos St #384, Austin, TX 78701-9996.
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