Another look at those who have been helped by Obamacare in Texas, and those who would be helped if the state wasn’t actively resisting.
It’s constitutional – deal with it
The states’s uninsured continue to be most likely Hispanic, middle-aged, with low incomes and without a college degree, according to a continuing study tracking the implementation of the health care law in Texas by Rice University’s Baker Institute and the Episcopal Health Foundation.
But even as Hispanics still represent the majority of those without insurance in Texas, theirs was the ethnic group that also showed the biggest gains.
Between the opening of the marketplace in September 2013 and the close of the second enrollment period in March 2015, the uninsured rate among Hispanic adults in Texas dropped to 57.1 percent from 61.2 percent – a bigger drop than any other ethnicity.
“It is not really surprising since they had the farthest to go, and still do,” said Elena Marks, president and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation and co-author of the study. She added: “We’re very encouraged,” crediting the improvement among Hispanics to vigorous outreach efforts to enroll people in marketplace plans.
[…]
Still, Thursday’s report also showed the percentage of the lowest income uninsured Texans continues to climb. The percentage of the poor in the state without insurance has grown to 66.9 percent from 63.2 percent in September 2013.
The report’s co-author Vivian Ho, the Baker Institute’s chair in health economics, has said the number of uninsured among the state’s poorest residents is not likely to change or could even grow in coming years. Under the law, the poor who were not eligible for subsidies were to be covered under a widening net of Medicaid. But Texas is one of 20 states that chose not to participate.
It is estimated about 1.5 million in the state would be eligible for coverage under an expanded Medicaid.
The report is here, and more information including previous reports in this vein is here. None of this is going to change the minds of those that can do something about this, but I have to hope that some day, with enough of this information and enough people visibly being helped by it, the voters may eventually do something about it. I hope I live long enough to see it happen.