from the Dallas Fed
— this post authored by Jason Saving and Sarah Greer
Newspaper headlines earlier this year announced that Texas had claimed a dubious distinction: It had surpassed California as having the largest number of residents with no health insurance (5 million) despite a population two-thirds that of California.
For the past decade, Texas had led the nation in the share of its residents lacking health insurance – 19.1 percent, according to the most recent Census Bureau calculation.
One contributor to Texas’ high rate of uninsured may involve its decision to not expand eligibility for Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor. California expanded the program as envisioned by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and will now reap the benefits from so doing. Texas, on the other hand, will likely continue to have an elevated level of uninsured individuals unless it, too, expands Medicaid.
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Source: http://www.dallasfed.org/assets/documents/research/ swe/2015/swe1504b.pdf