Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Don't Mess With Texas

Texas leads the nation with 25 percent of its population uninsured. A report issued by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality ranked Texas last in delivering health care to its citizens.
  Charlie Pierce
But wait! That's not all.

Our brilliant governor – who wanted to be your brilliant president – has announced that Texas will not be availing itself of federal money from the ACA to cover health costs for its uninsured. So there.
It is, of course, too early to know with real certainty which states will be affected. But states whose Governors had by mid-July been relatively outspoken about rejecting Medicaid expansion funding include Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas. In those states alone, as many as 5.5 million individuals who would otherwise have received coverage under Medicaid will remain uninsured. Republican Governors in an additional five states (Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey and Nevada) have indicated that they are inclined not to expand coverage, although a final decision has not been reached. Those states represent an additional 1.4 million uninsured individuals who would likely have been coveredunder Medicaid. If these 10 states ultimately were to decline Medicaid expansion, coverage for nearly 6.9 million low-income persons would appear to be at risk.
  RCHN Community Health Foundation
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Jean, from Missouri, would like to inform the above-quoted source that the governor of Missouri is actually a Democrat, although he at times acts like a Republican.  Thanks for the catch, Jean.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Missouri doesn't have a republican governor.