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Healthcare Coverage Of Rural Areas

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However, contrary to the expected success of these provisions involving healthcare coverage to rural areas, healthcare coverage to rural areas did not change as much as expected due to several other factors. The same judicial decision in June 2012 that deemed one of the act’s most controversial provisions constitutional also dealt a large setback to extending healthcare coverage in rural areas. The decision ruled that expansion of Medicaid, a state government, become optional for states because Congress had “exceeded its constitutional authority by coercing states into participating in the expansion by threatening them with the loss of existing federal payments” (Supreme Court). Two years later, twenty-four states were not implementing the Medicaid expansion. The states that are not expanding their Medicaid program are primarily the states with Republican-led state governments: Midwestern and Southern states (Weiner 9/15/15). In addition, many states are defining coverages areas differently. When a region chosen as a coverage area combines rural areas and nearby urban areas, the number of insurers and number of coverage plans available to the rural areas increases. As a result, the costs of insurance due to competition and other factors are lowered. Therefore, this is beneficial to both urban and rural residents. However, some states, due to the discretion that they have, are not defining coverage areas that way (Dickstein). One example is Texas, which has created regions

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