WASHINGTON — With 6.4 million uninsured residents, Texas is a major target for anyone eager to put a dent in the number of Americans without health coverage.
It’s also a bastion of resistance to Obamacare. The governor won’t set up a state-run marketplace or expand coverage for low-income Texans. The junior senator triggered a federal shutdown with a crusade to defund the law.
President Barack Obama will use his Dallas visit Wednesday to take aim at both obstacles to his signature health care law. He will prod uninsured Texans to sign up. And he will pressure Gov. Rick Perry to relent in his refusal to expand Medicaid, a move that alone could lop 1.5 million Texans off the rolls of the uninsured.