Health care divide separates Texas from Arkansas

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     (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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