Texas Public Policy Foundation

Texas PolicyCast

• Why medical loss ratios matter
  Medical loss ratios are a significant new regulation of insurance markets contained in the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act. The Texas Department of Insurance contends that they will destabilize the state's small group and individual insurance marketplaces. Last week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published a Policy Perspective on this topic, and we bring you a conversation with its author, Spencer Harris, the Foundation's health care policy analyst.
  
  
• More effective re-entry for juvenile offenders
  The juvenile justice system serves a dual purpose: punishing the offender for their criminal behavior, but as important, correcting their behavior so that they do not become adult criminals. Texas has traditionally done much more with the former than the latter, but an upcoming report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation identifies new approaches that show promise for accomplishing both objectives. We discuss the report with its author, Jeanette Moll, the Foundation's juvenile justice policy analyst.
  
  
• Higher education facts at a glance
  While Texas' debate over public higher education's cost and value garnered a great deal of press coverage in 2011, this is far from a Texas issue alone. As the statistics compiled in the Foundation's new report "Higher Education Facts at a Glance" demonstrate, rising tuitions and student debt, as well as declining student performance, have become subjects of truly national concern. Dr. Thomas Lindsay, director of the Foundation's Center for Higher Education, delves into some of these numbers, as well as developments that promise solutions to our higher education crisis.
  
  
• TPPF takes it to the Supreme Court
  If the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the individual mandate in the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, as several lower courts have done, it should rule that the main health insurance provisions in the law's Titles I and II are inseparable from the mandate and must be struck down with it, according to an amicus curiae brief filed last Friday with the Court by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. We learn more from the brief's primary author, Mario Loyola, director of the Foundation's Center for Tenth Amendment Studies.
  
  
• The EPA gets stayed
  Last Friday, the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals enjoined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from implementing its Cross-State Air Pollution Rule until the court has completed its review of the legal challenges against the rule. The highly controversial rule had been slated to take effect on January 1. For an analysis of both the rule and the ruling, we turn to Kathleen Hartnett White, director of the Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
  
  
• 2011: The year in review
  As we turn the page to 2012, this week we bring you our annual roundtable retrospective on the year that was. We revisit the major issues of 2011 with several of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's policy experts.
  
  
• Mental health: A survey of state-funded delivery
  Even with Texas' low per capita funding level for mental health services, the state has developed a dynamic, community-based system to meet the state's mental health needs. A new report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation looks at that system and opportunities for improvement. We discuss the findings with Spencer Harris, the Foundation's health care policy analyst.
  
  
• Mental health and corrections
  This week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation hosted its final Policy Primer luncheon of 2011, "A More Thoughtful Approach to Mental Health and Corrections." Mental illness is a major issue affecting our criminal justice system. On this episode, we talk with Vikrant Reddy, policy analyst in the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, about cost effective approaches to deal with mental illness and improve public safety.
  
  
• The margin tax debunked
  The Texas Public Policy Foundation released a new report on Wednesday that debunks several popular misconceptions about the margin tax, Texas' primary business tax. Discussing the report on this week's episode is James Quintero, the Foundation's fiscal policy analyst.
  
  
• Another look at faculty productivity
  The issue of faculty productivity at Texas public universities has returned to the spotlight after the University of Texas at Austin published a report on Sunday analyzing the return on taxpayer investment from its faculty's activities. Dr. Thomas Lindsay, director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, shares his perspective on the report on this week's episode.