Protesters in Austin call for expanded Medicaid
By Dave Montgomery
dmontgomery@star-telegram.com
AUSTIN -- In 2004, Sheila Anderson was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. A year ago, she lost her job -- and the health insurance that went along with it.
Tuesday, the 46-year-old Keller resident was among a busload of Tarrant County residents who traveled to Austin with a message to Gov. Rick Perry and Texas lawmakers: Expand Medicaid to Texans like Anderson.
Several hundred people from across the state rallied at the Texas Capitol to lend their voices to what has become a highly visible issue in the 2013 Legislature.
An expansion of Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act would widen coverage to an additional 1 million-plus low-income Texans, but Gov. Rick Perry has repeatedly opposed that option, calling the federal-state insurance program "an unsustainable system."
Wearing yellow caps emblazoned with "My Medicaid Matters," marchers walked along Congress Avenue to the south steps of the Capitol, where more than a dozen speakers urged Perry and lawmakers to expand coverage of the joint state-federal insurance program for the poor. House Republicans, in a closed caucus this week, voted overwhelmingly against Medicaid expansion "in its current form" but left the door open to negotiations for what some Republicans describe as a "Texas solution."
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