Rural Texas

Texas rural hospitals are in a struggle to stay open.In the last decade, 14 rural hospitals have closed down. Of the 156 rural hospitals currently in the state, about 70% have lost services, and more than half are at risk of closing. Federal cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Affordable Care Act coverage are expected to significantly increase the uninsured rate in Texas and could cause more rural hospitals to shutter. What’s being done to keep these vital lifelines open?

A drought across South and West Texas and wildfires in parts of North Texas have made farming even more difficult.

While research shows that the peer support model is effective at improving clients’ well-being, experts say that low pay makes it difficult for people to remain in positions or create livable careers.

The Texas Indigent Defense Commission is asking the Legislature to allocate millions of the state's general revenue to rural public defense attorneys and offices.

Ad Astra School has opened around the corner from Elon Musk’s corporate compound in rural Central Texas. Nonprofit filings show secondary schools and a university are also planned.

Experts at the gathering at the downtown campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio said the state legislature must act to ensure communities do not become ghost towns.

Local leaders and rural revitalization experts say Texas’ smallest towns can survive — despite a shift to urban and suburban counties — but it will take investments.

Search warrants show that Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson is under scrutiny by state investigators, accused of illegally confiscating cash and a pickup truck from immigrants stopped by his deputies.

American Public Media Research Lab data shows that 24 rural hospitals have closed in Texas since 2005 — the most of any state in the U.S.

Texas’s primary care doctor shortage has taken a sharp turn for the worse during the pandemic, and one rural family doctor is pleading with state lawmakers to do something about it.