Perry: State ready to run health program without Planned Parenthood

[TexasTowelie]

Gov. Rick Perry announced Wednesday that Texas stands ready to launch a state-run Women’s Health Program — without the involvement of Planned Parenthood — as soon as federal officials end funding for the contraceptive and preventive care program for low-income women.

Federal money will stop flowing by Dec. 31, but U.S. officials have set no firm date for the cutoff.

Perry said he hopes to persuade federal officials, with a court order if necessary, to continue paying 90 percent of the program’s $36.3 million annual cost. If that fails, however, Texas has lined up enough health care providers to continue the program without disruption to patients, Perry said.

“I promised the women of Texas that they would continue to have access to this important health care, whether funded by the federal government or whether it was funded by the state. We’re here this morning to announce the new Texas Women’s Health Program is ready to go, and also to reassure women across the state that they can, and will receive services,” he said.

More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional/perry-state-ready-to-run-health-program-without-pl/nSsYJ/

[tanyev]

1. Hope it goes better than his appliance rebate program.

Weds., Sept. 1, 2010 Texas is going to try again to hand out appliance rebates.

The state still has $10 million left over from April's grueling attempt to give away $23 million in federal energy efficiency money to people who upgraded certain appliances.

DeSilva said the company that operated the last rebate program that so infuriated applicants won't get full payment for the service. He said the comptroller will pay Helgeson Enterprises Inc. $250,000 for running the website and call centers in April, rather than the full $876,500 in the contract.

The Helgeson call center dropped three-fourths of the calls from people seeking rebates in April. The call center was flooded when the website became overloaded. DeSilva said Helgeson didn't have as much server capacity as it claimed to process web applications.

The website for the Texas appliance rebates went live at 7 a.m. April 7 and did not have its first completed submission until 9:19 a.m. From that time until 10:42 a.m., the site experienced "downtime issues," according to information furnished by the comptroller. After that, the system was "functional," the comptroller's office said.

http://energyandenvironmentblog.dallasnews.com/archives/efficiency/