Medicaid Obstruction Is Still Hurting America — Especially Texas By Rep Sheila Jackson Lee and Dr L

[DonViejo]

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE AND DR. LING ZHU – JULY 11, 2014, 4:44 PM EDT

Last week the President’s Council of Economic Advisers released a report detailing the serious health and economic harms caused by the 24 states that have turned down federal funding to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

Due to the actions of those states, some 5.7 million Americans with incomes at or below 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level are being denied access to affordable insurance.

What the President’s report didn’t emphasize is that people of color are disproportionally impacted. This is wreaking havoc not only on public health, our nation’s workforce, future global economic leadership, but also on our nation’s fundamental principles of equality.

Consider the Lone Star state, home to the highest uninsured rate in the country. According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, nearly one in four Texans lacks health insurance coverage. According to the Urban Institute’s recent county-by-county estimation, Governor Rick Perry and the Texas state legislature had the opportunity to turn that troubling statistic around by accepting funding to expand Medicaid coverage for 1.3 million low-income adults. They rejected it.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/medicaid-obstruction-is-still-hurting-america-especially-texas

[littlemissmartypants]

1. NC Gov Pat McCrory rejected it. eom

[historylovr]

2. K & R

Of course it is. But what did anyone expect? Did they really think Republican governors were going to accept federal money to help poor people get medical care? It's what we used to call piss poor prior planning when I was in the Army. Either that or the possibility (reality) of these people falling through the health insurance cracks, or remaining where they were in the first place, was weighed and measured and determined to be an acceptable outcome.