The federal government and the state of Texas said they have reached a compromise which will guarantee health coverage for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Under the plan, health care benefits for Medicaid recipients will be extended for six months. Officials also said government coverage will be extended to more people in the disaster zone, although precise details on what that means were not released. Texas also increased its official estimate of the number of evacuees it has accepted, raising the number to 360,000 from 250,000.
- see this story from the Houston Chronicle
PLUS: The Kaiser Family Foundation released a survey which shows that of those evacuees in shelters half had no health insurance before the storm and most of the rest were on Medicaid or Medicare. Story
AND: 12 patients died last week at Methodist Hospital. Universal Health Care's counsel says FEMA interfered with its effort to get supplies through. Story