LEFT
OUT
one chooses to join: people who
lack health insurance.
In Texas, that group is especially
large, numbering about 6.1 million.
As of last year, Texas had the highest rate of residents who were uninsured — 24 percent compared to
16 percent nationally, according to
census data compiled by the Henry
J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
Texas also claims distinction as
a state with one of the more restrictive standards for Medicaid
eligibility: It does not offer Medicaid to adults, regardless of their
income, except some pregnant
women, poor parents with children
at home, and people with disabilities. A single parent, for instance,
cannot enroll in Medicaid in Texas
if they make more than 25 percent
of the federal poverty line — now,
about $2,800 annually.
For a time, the Lairds scraped
by on her unemployment benefits
while she enrolled in community
college, aiming to become a fitness
instructor. They made a few dollars on the side selling peaches at
a roadside stand and occasional
housesitting. They sold their home
to raise funds to pay their bills and
they moved into a rental apartment.
About a year ago, Dianne got a
part-time job teaching exercise
HUFFINGTON
02.03.13
classes at the YMCA, a job that
pays less than she previously received in unemployment benefits.
As a family, the Lairds are poor by
the federal standard. But because
they don’t have children at home
and have no disabilities, it doesn’t
matter how poor they are in Texas,
so they have no health coverage.
“If something happens,” Dianne
“I DON’T THINK HEALTH CARE IS
SOMETHING ANYONE SHOULD
BE DENIED. IT’S NOT ANYONE’S
CHOICE TO GET SICK.”
said, “then I’m going t