Apparently Texas does not agree.
The uninsured rate in Texas
has dropped by nearly one-third since the roll-out of Obamacare in 2013. Since the state did not take the Medicaid expansion, most of those newly insured are in the marketplace, and if they're reflective of the rest of the nation's population, about
87 percent of them get federal subsidies for that insurance. That, Texas Republicans seem to think, is just too damned many people getting health insurance. So what's their plan?
Shame them away from getting insured.
Roughly a million Texans with government-subsidized health coverage could see a new label on their health insurance cards, and critics say the designation is akin to a "scarlet letter."
But instead of Hester Prynne's infamous "A," insurance cards for Texans with coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act would bear the letter "S," for subsidy.
Supporters of House Bill 1514 by state Rep. J.D. Sheffield, R-Gatesville, say it's necessary to standardize insurance cards and clarify the type of health coverage a patient has.
The Texas House passed the bill on Friday, with the support of some doctors who say that this will help them to remind patients of their obligation to keep paying their part of the insurance premium. That's the extent to which it's "necessary." As if the insurance companies aren't doing a good enough job of communicating that to their customers. In fact, the insurers don't like this one bit, as Jamie Dudensing, chief executive of the Texas Association of Health Plans, explained. She says that insurers are worried about a "scarlet letter" effect and the likelihood of some doctors deciding they just don't want to treat Obamacare patients. "Right now, providers are not really supposed to be discriminating against consumers if they have a contract with a health plan," Dudensing said, adding that insurers are "very concerned" about the bill.
The only reason physicians could care is if they have a political problem with Obamacare and want to take it out on their patients or to try to sabotage its success.