(AP) – Called “Obamacare” by opponents, the Affordable Care
Act is highly unpopular in Texas and Arkansas, but the approaches the two states
take in response to it have created stark differences in health care cost and
availability just a few miles apart.
Arkansas uses federal money to buy private insurance for the poor, encourages
the unemployed to seek work, and has some enrollees pay part of their premiums.
Texas lawmakers won’t consider Medicaid expansion – period.
Near Texarkana, Arkansas, Erika Castaneda told the Houston Chronicle she can
now afford the co-payment to treat her diabetes. A few miles away in Texarkana,
Texas, nurse Cheryl Nunn says she and her husband have $165,000 in medical bills
her $35,000 salary and his $4,104 in annual disability payments can’t meet.
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