In 2016, a foster baby born with severe defects needed constant monitoring from a nurse, to ensure he didn’t pull out his breathing tube and choke to death. The insurance company Texas pays to provide that care refused, saving Superior HealthPlan as much as $500 a day. Then the state’s appeal system failed D’ashon, deferring to Superior. Months later, as D’ashon’s nurses and foster mother warned would happen, the baby tugged out his breathing tube when his nurse wasn’t around and suffocated for so long that he’s now in a permanent “vegetative state.” If bills that passed the Texas Legislature this week had been enacted then, D’ashon might have been saved.
Source: Dallas Morning News: Texas’ Medicaid System Hurt Vulnerable People As Insurers Got Rich. Now Major Reforms Head To Gov. Abbott / Kaiser Health News [subscription]