Emily Cadik Posts

A survey cited that lack of awareness of the new health plan is the main barrier to access, not the technical glitches that were so prevalent in the first month of the ACA's rollout. Texas – a state that would gain the most from the program, with 6 million uninsured – is the focus of a new push by Get Covered America.

Something big happened in the House of Representatives this week. Though the budget deal that passed on Thursday wasn't itself a major piece of legislation, it represents a major shift in partisan politics in Washington. Less than three months ago, House Republicans were willing to shut down the government rather than support something that Democrats also supported.

Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn are united in their opposition to a rare bipartisan budget agreement. Though modest, the agreement averts some of the more disastrous sequester cuts, as well as raising fees to continue to pay down the deficit.

A new study by the Commonwealth Fund, "How States Stand to Gain or Lose Federal Funds by Opting In or Out of the Medicaid Expansion," shows that Texas clearly stands to lose the most of any state. Because of Rick Perry's refusal to expand Medicaid, Texas will forego over $9 billion in federal funds while Perry holds out for a Medicaid block grant that he'll never get.

According to a new study, medical expenses hit Texas cities disproportionately hard. If Governor Perry had not refused Obamacare's Medicaid expansion, millions in taxpayer money would have been saved. Millions that could be better spent on jobs or infrastructure projects.

Amid recent attempts to repeal the DREAM Act in Texas, eleven state senators are calling for the preservation of the legislation that offers in-state tuition to students who have lived in Texas for over three years regardless of immigration status. The law has been a popular target for repeal among Republicans.

On November 1, Texas families receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program assistance will have their benefits cut by an average of 7 percent — or $36 per month for a family of four. The cuts will strip $411 million worth of assistance in Texas and impact more than four million Texans. Over half of which are children.

Even in the state with the highest uninsured rate in the country, Hispanics in Texas stand out as having among the worst uninsured rates of any population. Almost 60 percent of the uninsured in Texas are Hispanic, representing over 3 million people. Though much of this group will be newly eligible for health insurance in October, translating eligibility into enrollment isn't as easy as it sounds.

Interest rates on student loans doubled today — from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. The change impacts over 7 million students who are already struggling to repay loans as they begin their careers. It can add more than $20,000 over 10 years on federal Stafford loans.

On Wednesday, the House advanced a farm bill that includes $2 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps). According to the Texas Food Bank Network, these cuts would force over 170,000 Texans off of food assistance immediately and eliminate 482 million meals.

Mothers are now the breadwinners or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of American families, but you'd never guess it by looking at the United States' policies. Women still make 77 cents on the dollar compared to men and the U.S. is the only country in the developed world that doesn't offer national paid family or medical leave.

In addition to the moral arguments for immigration reform, the practical arguments keep adding up. The potential economic boost, the increased tax revenue and the contributions to the housing market (to name a few) all make a compelling case on economic grounds to naturalize the 11 million undocumen

Texas may soon take some important strides in gender equality. Currently, women with professional degrees are paid just 67 cents for every dollar paid to men with professional degrees.

Perry sent a letter to Texas's congressional delegation reaffirming his opposition to expanding Medicaid. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX-20th) responded, "Mr. Perry is hard-pressed to explain why the governor from the state with the most to gain is dead-set on standing in the way of Texas families having access to healthcare."

The official count is in: the federal government will be running 26 exchanges for the states - the same states that theoretically hate "big government."

Nationwide, the cities that have the most college grads living in the suburbs are ones you'll recognize as having some of the highest costs of living in the U.S. - New York, San Francisco and the Bay Area, Washington, DC, and Boston.

The Romney camp has spent the past month trying to dig out of some holes - his 47 percent comments, the binders of women. But on health insurance, Romney decided to just keep digging.  
Last month, Romney suggested emergency rooms are a sound alternative to health insurance when he said, "Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance. If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and - and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the ...

When Republicans cut taxes for the rich without any hints of remorse, the typical explanation is that cutting taxes at the top grows the economy for everyone.  Despite the fact that decades of economic policy have shown this theory to be grounded in fantasy, sometimes it's really hard to imagine how their tax policies would ever actually grow anything.
In their latest inexcusable tax proposal, Republicans are attempting to lower the estate tax for the wealthiest heirs, while letti...

During last night's vice presidential debate, moderator Martha Raddatz asked a great question: whether people who are pro-choice should be worried if Romney is elected. And as if we weren't scared already, Paul Ryan played into our deepest fears.  
Ryan explained that he has an anti-choice stance based in "reason and science."  And in support of his dedication to reason and science, he explained that he's Catholic and his child was shaped like a bean while in the womb.  Sentimental, but not exactly peer reviewed.  And then he tore into Obamacare for undermining religiou...

Last week, Mitt Romney claimed that we do have health care for everyone in the country - it's just that some people's health care plans don't include things like check-ups and only include emergency room visits.

So it should come as no surprise that an analysis of Romney's health policy proposals from the Commonwealth Fund estimates that Romney's health care plan would leave 72 million Americans uninsured by 2022.