Healthcare costs open $1.7 billion hole in Texas budget

Dallas Morning News, March 9, 2010

Rising healthcare costs have dug a hole of about $1.7 billion into the Texas state budget, officials said. Texas has about 350,000 more poor people on government health insurance than it did last year, and healthcare costs also are skyrocketing for state employees and prison inmates, several agency heads told the House Appropriations Committee.