The Huntsville Item

By: John Austin

Texas scores well in a lot of rankings, but the number of rural and small-town residents with health coverage isn’t one of them. More than one third — 36 percent — of rural/small-town Texans lack health insurance, versus 29 percent of metro residents.

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Of those, Texas is No. 5 in a group with “the highest rate of uninsured low-income adults in small towns and rural areas,” according to a Georgetown University Center for Children and Families/University of North Carolina NC Rural Health Research Program report. Patrick Bresette, executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, follows the issue, but said “even I was surprised. The numbers are kind of shocking.”

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Read more here.