By expanding Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act sets out to cover some 17 million uninsured Americans. Many in this group are adults who currently don’t qualify for the program because they don’t have children. In most states single adults and childless couples are not considered among “the worthy poor,” no matter how little they earn. The Affordable Care Act would change that, extending the safety net to everyone with incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level; $14,404 for an individual, or $29,326 for a family of four. Today, eligibility varies from state to state: Texas only covers working adults up to 26 percent of the poverty line.

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