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Texans List High Cost as Main Reason for Remaining Uninsured

Melissa del Bosque
/
Texas Observer

According to The Texas Observer,more than 1 million poor Texas adults will remain without insurance if Texas doesn’t expand Medicaid, experts say. According to a new report, uninsured Texans say cost is the main reason they do not have insurance. Researchers found that 70 percent of uninsured Texans find health insurance too expensive. Just under 20 percent of uninsured Texans say they don’t want health insurance. However, the study didn’t ask for a reason. Very few uninsured Texans cited a lack of information as the reason for not having insurance.

Most of these uninsured would be covered by federal subsidies if Texas had elected to expand Medicaid in the state. Instead, Texas’s GOP leaders have repeatedly rejected Medicaid expansion.

Despite the reluctance, uninsured rates in Texas have nevertheless dropped from 24 percent in 2013 to 19 percent in 2015.