The Census Bureau study released Thursday said that Texas' poverty rate last year was 17.3 percent, once again the nation's sixth-highest. The rate among Texas children also has increased since 2008.

Poverty now affects almost 1.8 million Texans younger than 18. That's just more than one of every four. Dallas News

More good Republican ideas recycled in Texas:

Appearing on CNN's Parker/Spitzer this past week, occasionally secessionist Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) proposed allowing states to opt-out of Social Security:

"Here's what I think would be a very wise thing," he began. "In 1981, Matagorda, Brazoria, and Galveston Counties all opted out of the Social Security program for their employees. Today, their program is very, very well-funded and there is no question about whether it's going to be funded in the out years. It's there. That's an option out there." Think Progress

The CRS said,   "By examining the actual system in place in Texas, this study shows that Americans are worse off with privatized accounts -- not in theory, but in reality."   And remember, this was in 2005.   You can imagine what those private accounts look like after the recession took trillions of dollars in investments out of the stock market starting around the end of 2007.   I'll bet those county employees wish they'd been allowed to stay in the Social Security program. link

Howard County is moving ahead with plans to convert a highly regarded health program for the uninsured into a low-cost regional insurance co-operative, despite the increasing pressure to reverse the national health care law that allows such an initiative.

County officials are considering the creation of small neighborhood walk-in clinics for co-op members, staffed by a salaried doctor, a nurse, a care coordinator and a clerk. Eliminating the traditional fee-for-service system could deliver care more cheaply, advocates said.

"I see multiple economies of scale," said Howard County health officer Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, who is pushing the co-op idea.

Beilenson and other county officials have received praise for the creation of Healthy Howard, a low-cost program for the uninsured in Howard. But the plan is not an insurance program and would cease to exist by 2014, when the federal law requires everyone to be insured or pay a fine. So officials are looking at other options.

[snip]

Under the proposed program, salaried specialists in regional centers could consult via computer with the primary-care doctors and their patients, reducing in-person visits by as much as 70 percent, he said.

For start-up funding, the program could seek some of the $6 billion in funds available through the federal health care law passed earlier this year.

Sue Walitsky, a spokeswoman for Sen. Benjamin Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and an expert on health care legislation, said while there's been talk from Republicans about repealing the health care legislation or blocking funding for parts of the law, anything said now "is just speculation."

Beilenson's effort has support from people like Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, a private New York group that promotes health care, and from Brad Herring, a health economist and insurance expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"I think their model is a good one," Davis said, adding that she thinks co-ops are "a relatively non-controversial idea." Herring agreed and said that "it's hard to imagine conservatives would try to limit choices in the private health care market."

So, too, a Medicaid withdrawal would bring home the cascading economic devastation it would cause. Economic devastation that would not be compensated for by the upswing in mortuary services.   Of course, the devastation in human health and well-being would not matter so much, unless the unsightly sick and dying cluttered up the roadways.