New data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey indicates that 700,000 more Texans had health care in 2014 than they did in 2013, with the jump being credited to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The report noted that *Texas saw a major improvement in its overall (all ages) uninsured rate from 22.1 percent in 2013 to 19.1 percent in 2014 (a one-year drop of 3 percentage points). This is the largest gain in health care coverage in Texas since 1999… These percentages reflect a drop from 5.7 million uninsured in 2013 to 5 million in 2014.”
The Center for Public Policy Priorities, which sent out a press release on the new data, noted that the percentage of insured in Texas could have been considerably higher had the state opted to expand Medicaid. “In Texas and nationwide the Affordable Care Act has boosted health insurance coverage tremendously,” said CPPP Associate Director Anne Dunkelberg. “Regrettably Texas is missing out on the even larger health benefits and cost reductions a majority of states – including conservative states – have gained by expanding coverage for the working poor with federal Medicaid dollars.”
Texas population increases over 1M per year. How can you be sure that those counted as newly insured, and the improved percentages, aren’t merely reflecting new people who were already insured who have moved into Texas?