Texas Gov. Abbott seeks retribution against hospital that advocates Medicaid expansion [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

Man, does Texas grow vindictive, conspiratorial Republicans, or what? Here's Gov. Gregg Abbott pulling a real Chris Christie move, essentially ordering a financial investigation of a nonprofit health insurer and affiliated hospital because its chief wrote an editorial he didn't like.

Shortly before 1 a.m. on July 15, Gov. Greg Abbott sent an email from his personal account to his top advisers about an editorial published by the Houston Chronicle.

Its author, Ken Janda, had written that Texas' health care safety net system for the poor and uninsured was "in serious danger of meltdown" because state leaders were refusing to expand health coverage to a million uninsured Texans living in poverty.

The governor told aides he wanted to "see the financials" of Janda's nonprofit Community Health Choice, a health insurer affiliated with the Harris Health System, one of Texas' largest public hospitals.

"I'm told by informed sources that most of these entities are rolling in dough," Abbott wrote. […]

At 6:30 a.m. on July 15, Abbott's policy director Drew DeBerry forwarded the governor's note about the editorial to other aides, asking them to compile information about the hospital system's profits.

"By engaging in this ridiculous editorial, this specific hospital has now put themselves on the list" of facilities whose finances the aides should review, DeBerry wrote.

Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/03/1418084/-Texas-Gov-Abbott-seeks-retribution-against-hospital-that-advocates-Medicaid-expansion#