Health Insurance In Killeen Texas

Texas' poverty rate rises for second year in a row

AUSTIN — The number of Texans living in poverty jumped to more than 4.6 million last year, an increase of nearly 9 percent, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

For the second consecutive year, Texas’ poverty rate grew — to 18.4 percent, well above the national average of 15.1 percent.

Texas’ rate was sixth-highest among the states last year, trailing only Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Arizona and New Mexico. Texas also ranked sixth in poverty in 2008 and 2009.

Once again, Texas led all states in the share of its population that lacks health insurance, at 24.6 percent. The national uninsured rate is 16.3 percent.

Experts said they weren’t sure why the number of poor Texans grew 9 percent between 2009 and 2010, while nationwide, the number increased 6 percent.

“I didn’t see anything obvious in the state unemployment rate, [and] I had the impression that immigration wasn’t up” because of the recession, said Arloc Sherman, senior researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research group in Washington.

He speculated that Texas, which didn’t have a big real-estate collapse, may have just taken awhile to feel the full effects of the nation’s economic downturn.

The census study is widely criticized for using an old measure of poverty and not distilling how many of the nation’s poor are illegal immigrants — the bureau asks if people are citizens but doesn’t survey them if the answer is no.

But it still offers the most graphic evidence of a withering and relentless economic contraction: Texas had 4.26 million poor people in 2009 but added about 373,000 last year. That’s roughly equivalent to throwing all of the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan statistical area into the poorhouse.

In child poverty, Texas moved up a notch. In 2009, the rate among state residents younger than 18 was 25.6 percent, or seventh-highest among states. Last year, at 27 percent, Texas came in No. 6, edging out Indiana.

- Texas Injury Lawyers Blog - We care. We Can Help. Blog | The ...

A Defense Base Act system investigation has uncovered deficiencies in medical care and disability payment for private U.S. government contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, a study by ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times revealed.

In a class action suit filed by private contractors for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan, employees claimed that insurance companies and firms representing them denied medical care, disability payments and "lied, cheated and threatened injured contractors." In addition federal employment laws were ignored, according to contractors filing the suit .

Backed by the Defense Base Act, a law that created a system of employee compensation for contract workers employed by the government, the suit seeks $2 billion in damages.

Civilian Contractor Benefits

With thousands and thousands of U.S. federal contractors present in Afghanistan and Iraq, thousands of injuries claims have been filed. In addition, thousands of contractors have been killed. Upwards of 1,400 civilian employees have died in the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan and as many as 31,000 have been injured.

The existence of contractors injured and killed in the Middle East as they accompany and support U.S. troops has boosted the number of injury claims associated. With an abundance of injuries and deaths, the system of claims, medical insurance deficiencies and inattention have been revealed, resulting in the recent civilian contractor lawsuit.

Paid for with tax payer money, the Defense Base Act loop holes, burrowed by big insurance companies and other federal contractors, have angered citizens with fraudulent use of tax dollars. While funds were supplied as a method of supporting the rising number of government contractors in the Middle East, insurance companies and contract employers are accused of denying claims and even withholding benefits entirely from some employees, although claims are being denied by companies like AIG and KBR.

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In Cold Blood

In defense of food, an eater's manifesto [additional copies -- 2]

Democracy in America