What are your best ideas? What’s broken that we could fix if smart people confronted it, but everybody is afraid that it’s too controversial? These are great areas to consider for philanthropy or for-profit work!

Special thanks to my wonderful (now former) boss @RepJamesFrank, whom it was such a privilege to work for. And thank you to @mayes_middleton and @chiproytx, who gave me my first opportunities in politics. I genuinely could not have asked for better members to work for!

EXCLUSIVE: James Talarico’s Pastor Says Jesus Didn’t Die For Sins, Slanders Virgin Mary “We have no way of knowing if Jesus really existed,” Rev. Babs Miller of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church says in NEW undercover video obtained by @realDailyWire.

While everyone is focused on the ICE shooting in Austin, the City Council is quietly spending an insane amount of taxpayer money on lawyers to fight deportations. It's tucked into Thursday's consent agenda so it can pass without a word of debate or controversy. The money goes to two nonprofits, American Gateways and Catholic Charities, to provide what the City's own documents call "deportation defense." It pays for: 1. Lawyers representing "detained and non-detained immigrants," including people ICE is actively trying to remove. 2. Coaching immigrants representing themselves in immigration court, helping them file motions and meet deadlines to stay in the country. 3. Legal work that helps immigrants obtain work permits. 4. Federal immigration filing fees. Total bill to be approved: $854,872 City staff list one of the program's goals as helping clients "obtain and maintain public benefits." Austin has already paid American Gateways $3.4 million since 2019, and after Thursday the four contracts will be authorized for up to $6.7 million.

Texas @RepJamesFrank delivers a perfect explanation for why antitrust action is PRO-free markets during a discussion about the lack of competitive markets in healthcare during yesterday's symposium @TPPF. #txlege

"The loser is the employer, the taxpayer, and the patient." Texas State Senator @LoisKolkhorst had some real talk about healthcare prices at yesterday's @TPPF #healthcare symposium. #txlege

A deadly stabbing in Round Rock is now drawing the attention of Texas lawmakers. They are calling for an investigation into how the alleged killer was freed in the first place. fox7austin.com/news/round-ro…

Eighty-two percent of physicians now work for a hospital, an insurer, or private equity. KFF Health News just walked through what that looks like for one patient: an office polyp removal became a surgery-center bill after the health system bought the practice. Estimate jumped from about $3,000 to about $6,000. The hospital’s first pitch was $18,000 with full anesthesia. @mcuban called the vertical stack what it is: the right pocket giving to the left pocket. Keep a policy for the wreck. Primary care shouldn’t live inside someone else’s supply chain. Flat monthly fee. No claim. No network. The number on the door is the number you pay. kffhealthnews.org/news/verti…

Fox News’ Brooke Taylor: “Is your position that anyone who is here illegally that doesn’t have a criminal record that they should be allowed to stay in the country?” Texas Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate James Talarico: “No, I believe they should have a pathway to citizenship…” Brooke Taylor: “You have a case like Jocelyn Nungaray... here in Texas… brutally killed [by] two illegal migrants from Venezuela. They DIDN’T have a known [criminal] history.” James Talarico: “It’s why I’m a border security Democrat.” Well, that’s not a thing given Democrats DIDN’T do a D*MN thing when the Biden administration let in tens of millions of illegal migrants that are killing innocent Americans almost DAILY.

Hospital prices have risen 3x inflation and 2x worker wages since 2000. Most are tax-exempt & supposed to provide a "community benefit." The best community benefit would be to cut their overhead & become much more efficient. Public policy must stop subsidizing waste & bloat.

"I oppose trans athletes playing in girls sports if it endangers safety or fairness." Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is changing his tune on biological men in women's sports. Pressed by Fox News' @Brooketaylortv on where he stands, Talarico said he would oppose trans athletes competing in girls' sports if it poses a risk to safety and fairness — a notable shift for a candidate who once claimed there were "six" biological sexes and said "God is nonbinary." He has since said he knows there are two sexes and acknowledged some of his past comments "missed the mark." @TheStoryFNC

One man (Mr. Musk) owns more wealth than the bottom half of American households. Meanwhile, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, nearly 800,000 are homeless and 85 million are uninsured. We can do better. We must do better.

Long day at the Texas Capitol! Today, the House Select Committee on Health Care Affordability held another hearing focused on lowering the cost of care for Texas families. Our invited witnesses included independent physicians, hospital leaders, innovative care and financing experts, and health-plan representatives, offering perspectives from across the health care system. I’ll continue bringing my experience as a doctor to the table as we work toward practical solutions that lower costs, improve transparency, and put patients first. Texans deserve better. #Lalani76 #HD76 #TXLege #HealthcareAffordability #PatientsFirst

My testimony today at the Texas State capital I’m the co-founder of CostPlusDrugs.com. We started Cost Plus Drugs because the prescription drug market is too complicated, too opaque and too expensive. Our model is simple: we show what we pay for a drug, add a transparent markup and pharmacy fee, and show the customer the price. No games. No hidden spread. And a large percentage of our customers already have insurance. They come to us because our cash price is often lower than what their insurance plan asks them to pay. That tells you something is wrong. Here are five things Texas can do about it. 1. Let patients shop for cheaper drugs If someone's insurance says a prescription costs $500, but they can buy the exact same drug for $100 cash, let them buy it for $100. Then credit that $100 toward their deductible and out-of-pocket maximum wherever Texas has authority to do so. Patients should be rewarded for saving themselves and their health plan money. They shouldn't be punished for it. That's how you create something healthcare desperately needs: Price competition. 2. Standardize PBM and TPA contracts Texas should require the state, cities, counties and school districts to use standardized model contracts and mandatory terms for PBMs and TPAs. I've reviewed these contracts. They routinely run hundreds of pages. I've seen contracting packages longer than a thousand pages. There is no human being—or group of human beings—on this planet who can stay awake and understand every provision in contracts that complicated. I don't care how much coffee they drink. I call it contractual terrorism. The vendor only has to sneak a couple of tricks through hundreds of pages. The employer has to find every one. It can't. I've developed a model PBM contract designed to eliminate the major tricks and hidden economics we've identified. Texas can have it for free. Use mine. Improve it. Open source it. I don't care. Just stop making every government entity negotiate these contracts from scratch. 3. Make the economics public If taxpayers are paying the bill, taxpayers should know the price. Pricing. Fees. Rebates. Guarantees. Pharmacy reimbursement. Affiliate compensation. Audit rights. Make them public. I'm not talking about patient information or legitimate security information. I'm talking about the money. You cannot have an efficient market without price discovery. Without price discovery, you get information asymmetry. And when one side knows dramatically more than the other, guess who wins? Not taxpayers. Not employers. Not patients. Open the contracts up and let competitors see what they have to beat. That giant sucking sound you hear will be money moving away from healthcare conglomerates that are too big to care and back toward taxpayers, employers and patients. In the immortal words of Charles Barkley: I guarantee it. 4. Kill the gag clauses PBM contracts are like Fight Club. The number one rule of Fight Club is that you can't talk about Fight Club. The number one rule of many PBM contracts seems to be that you can't talk about your PBM contract. That's insane. Let employers compare pricing, rebates, fees, guarantees and reimbursement terms. Markets work better when buyers know what other buyers are paying. 5. Make enforcement hurt If a healthcare company commits a serious violation, give them one mulligan. But after a second material federal or Texas enforcement action within a defined period, make them ineligible for new Texas government contracts for a period of time. Two strikes. You're out. Today, some of these companies can make billions, get caught, pay a fine and write it off more easily than I wrote off an NBA fine. That's not deterrence. That's a cost of doing business. And Texas should spend more on enforcement. If Texas spends $10 million auditing contracts and analyzing claims and prevents $100 million in unnecessary spending, that's not overhead. That's a 10x return on investmen