News bites: Who’s harming Americans’ health?

{mosads}The number of children enrolled in Arizona’s CHIP program, KidCare, has plummeted to its lowest level since 1999 despite booming demand, the Houston Chronicle reports.

The Washington Post‘s Sarah Kliff praises a decade-old Rick Perry proposal to allow “binational health insurance” plans between Texas and Mexico.

Perry is getting a lot of heat from some in the Tea Party over the idea, reports the Dallas Morning News.

Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman tells Reuters he likes Paul Ryan’s plans for Medicare and Medicaid.

The Texas Tribune reviews Rick Perry’s new book, wherein he calls the healthcare law “the closest this country has ever come to outright socialism.”

An environmental regulation that House Republicans have vowed to block has been estimated to save 14,000 to 36,000 lives a year from averted heart attacks, strokes and respiratory illnesses, the liberal Media Matters for America points out.

Family-planning providers across Texas are losing funding due to state budget cuts, the Austin Chronicle reports.

Public Citizen wants the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to adopt standards protecting workers for heat exposure.

The Senate Appropriations Committee announced that it will take up FDA funding on Wednesday.

The Washington Post‘s Petula Dvorak finds “mountains upon mountains of leafy greens” in the trash during her visit to a public school cafeteria.