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Texas: Most Uninsured Children and Poor Adults in the Nation… Again

texastribune.org

Once again, estimates recently released by U.S. Census Bureau say Texas has the most uninsured in the nation according to a recent article from The Texas Tribune.    

Texas also has the most children and poor adults without insurance, according to the 2012 American Community Survey estimates. 

“There is just an awful lot of people priced out of the [health insurance] market in Texas because of our Wild West regulatory approach on the rate side,” said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director of the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities.  Dunkleberg said the cause of the high uninsured rate is lack of regulations governing Texas’ individual and large employer health insurance markets, the exclusion of most poor parents and all other adults from the state’s Medicaid program, and the lack of employer-sponsored coverage in many of Texas’ predominant industries.

John Davidson, health policy analyst at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, disagrees.  “I think that we have an unhealthy obsession with the uninsured rate in Texas.  It distracts us from the much more important question of health care for the indigent population. Insurance and care are not the same things.”

Davidson went to say, “Being on an insurance plan doesn’t mean you have good health care or you have access to health care.  I think this is most obvious when you look at our Medicaid program,” which he said has “terrible problems with access to care.”