Texas’ uninsured rate declines, gap vs. U.S. widens under ACA, says Dallas Fed’s ‘Southwest Economy’

For Immediate Release: December 21, 2017

DALLAS—Texas has seen gains in the share of its population with health insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect in 2014, according to the latest issue of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ Southwest Economy.

These improvements stem from an increase in private coverage, largely due to the ACA’s overhaul of the private insurance market, Anil Kumar writes in “Texas Sees Coverage Gains Under Health Care Act.” From 2013 to 2016, the state saw the share of individuals with insurance from all private sources (including employer-based coverage) rise 7 percentage points, versus about 4 percentage points for the nation as a whole.

Texas was among states that opted out of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. This has widened the gap between Texas and other states—as well as the U.S. as a whole—in the percentage of those uninsured, according to Kumar.

“The Texas uninsured rate remains elevated among several key demographic groups, and increases in coverage could have been larger had the state opted to expand Medicaid,” he writes.

Also in this issue of Southwest Economy, Jesse Thompson discusses forecasting models that incorporate storm damage costs and leading economic indicators to project Houston’s post-Hurricane Harvey employment growth.

“These models taken together anticipate that after three months of rapid recovery from Hurricane Harvey, Houston will grow near its historical average rate of 2 percent in 2018,” Thompson writes in “Leading Indicators, Storm Data Guide Houston Economic Forecast.”

This issue also includes an “On the Record” conversation with Harris County Judge Edward M. Emmett about challenges facing Houston in the aftermath of Harvey.

In “Mexico’s ‘SOFOM’ Finance Firms Attempt to Broaden Loan Availability,” Michael Perez and Kelsey Reichow take a look at how the rise of nonbank-regulated finance companies known as SOFOMES may help fill lending gaps in Mexico.

In the Southwest Economy “Spotlight” article, Alexander T. Abraham and Amy Jordan examine how rising education levels have helped boost household income for Hispanics both in Texas and the U.S. Despite this growth, however, the Texas Hispanic median household income trails that of the state and this income gap is wider than in the U.S. as a whole, the authors write.

And this issue’s “Go Figure” infographic shows what’s behind the increase in remittances to Central America and what it means for the receiving countries.

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Media contact:
Jennifer Chamberlain
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Phone: (214) 922-6748
E-mail: jennifer.chamberlain@dal.frb.org