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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUninsured Texans Seek Health Care In Mexico As Their Governor Resists Medicaid Expansion
By Sy Mukherjee
The debate over Medicaid expansion has devolved into a GOP platform for grandstanding about the health reform law and the Obama administration. But an NPR article from Tuesday shines a light on what, exactly, most Republican governors refusal to expand Medicaid will mean for real Americans by examining poor communities in a state headed by one of Obamacares most ardent critics: Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX).
The piece centers on particularly destitute populations in southern Texas, where some uninsured residents are so poor, sick, and unable to cope with their medical bills that they resort to desperate measures such as crossing the border into Mexico for medications and even sharing their insulin shots:
(M)any of those who live here (in Brownsville) including poor Latino immigrants, both legal and undocumented suffer from diabetes and lack of insurance. Some of those uninsured diabetics, including American citizens and others living here legally, used to go across the border to Matamoros, Mexico for insulin. But now with the fear of brutal drug violence and tougher border restrictions, families share their insulin shots rather than risking the crossings.
A community health worker in Brownsville noted that many of those who used to cross the border would qualify for Medicaid under the expansion offered by the health care law.
This inequity is further exacerbated when dealing with a more serious or life-threatening chronic condition. One official at Brownsvilles local health clinic described how difficult it is to provide specialty care services to the poor and uninsured, emphasizing that Medicaid coverage would make it far easier to convince physicians to take on patients:
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/05/22/2048061/uninsured-texans-medicaid-expansion/
POLL: Americans In The Deep South Strongly Support Medicaid Expansion, Despite Governors Opposition
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022884116
Warpy
(111,319 posts)Juarez is a day trip from most parts of NM if you don't mind a very, very long day. It used to be the only place you could get routine dental care for the family and routine physicals if you had no insurance.
The Stupid came along and made it necessary to show a passport at the border. Poor folks can't afford passports!
So now people here are living in pain as their teeth rot, waiting for the abscesses to spread and kill them.
I was hoping this most onerous part of Stupid's tightening of our borders would be overturned, but I guess a whole lot of people in pain doesn't mean anything to the assholes inside the Beltway.
It is time for a revolution. I just hope they'll allow us another peaceful one.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)it`s a great place to start a nationwide epidemic.