Commissioners Court Elections Could Shift Priorities Of JPS Health Network During Pandemic

Arlington TX

03 February, 2022

6:41 PM

Description

By Alexis Allison, Fort Worth Report February 2, 2022 Trips to her local Kroger afford Rebecca Deen, an associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at Arlington, the opportunity to be "professionally nosy" about the behavior of her fellow shoppers. On a recent grocery run, Deen contemplated why some people wore masks and others didn't. Each person's "decision calculus" likely involved not mere politics, she said, but partisanship, or a leaning toward a particular party's principles. Health care has been part of political conversations for decades, but the pandemic has highlighted not only the need for health-related safety nets, she said, but the role politicians — like those on the county commissioners court — play in shaping them. And as primary elections approach for three of the five seats on Tarrant County's commissioners court, Deen hopes people pay attention to how candidates could affect the direction of the county's publicly funded hospital district: JPS Health Network. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.