LAREDO, Tex. — For 12 hours a day, the waiting room at Dr. Gustavo Villarreal's family practice is packed with patients who pay a flat $50 fee for the convenience — or necessity — of a walk-in, quick-turn doctor's visit.
Efforts at both the state and federal level are underway to decrease Texas' sky-high rate of residents without health coverage. But in a city where nearly a third of the population lives below the poverty line, Dr. Villarreal does not accept health insurance. Instead, he has switched to a cash-based model, eschewing the laborious practice of filing out insurance forms in order to get paid.
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