Texarkana straddles the state line of Texas, which didn't expand Medicaid, and Arkansas,...
The Arkansas-Texas state line runs down the middle of Stateline Avenue in Texarkana, Texas, May 19, 2014. The poor living on the Arkansas side of Texarkana gained health coverage when the state accepted the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act, but the poor a few blocks across the border in Texas did not.
Until a few years ago the divide was obvious, recalls James Bright, editor and general manager of the Texarkana Gazette. All the liquor stores were on the Arkansas side of the street, he told us , while the churches were on the Texas side. Until recently, Arkansas High School and Texas High School got together every year on the football field for twin-city bragging rights, but otherwise, Bright says, Texarkanans don’t give much thought to the line that divides them.
Perhaps they should. In a recent investigation taking advantage of the unique twin-city circumstance, Public Health Watch, an Austin-based nonprofit news organization focused on health issues, found stark and growing health care differences between the two Texarkanas. The slightly larger, slightly more prosperous Texas city is falling behind its Arkansas counterpart.
Eighteen percent of Texas Texarkanans younger than 65 are living without health insurance. That’s nearly double the national rate, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. For their Arkansas neighbors, the rate of uninsured has trended downward in recent years. It’s now about 12 percent., with sourcing assistance from the Gazette, reported that differences in health outcomes also are emerging.
The reason for the disparity between the two cities is obvious: Arkansas took advantage of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, while Texas did not. Thirteen years after passage of the ACA — dare we call it Obamacare? — Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and their Republican acolytes in the Texas Legislature remain afflicted with a chronic case of a malady we call
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