Health care law encompasses the laws and regulations governing hospital and health care administration, and an understanding of health care insurance is integral to it. There are significant differences in the types and amount of coverage provided by various private insurance policies, such as HMOs, PPOs, disability insurance, and hospital indemnity insurance, just as there are important differences in the cost to the purchasers of health insurance. There are also public health care insurance programs. Elderly and disabled persons may be eligible for coverage through the federal Medicare program. The joint state-federal Medicaid program helps certain individuals, including disabled persons and low-income elderly persons, pay for long-term care and in-home health care.
Irving (pronounced 'er-ving') is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within Dallas County. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 191,615; the 2006 estimate was 201,927 according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and 196,084 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Irving is within the Dallas–Plano–Irving metropolitan division of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, designated by the U.S. Census Bureau and colloquially referred to as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Irving contains the Las Colinas area, which was one of the first master-planned developments in the United States and once the largest mixed-use development in the Southwest with a land area of more than 12,000 acres (49 km²). Las Colinas includes the Mustangs at Las Colinas, which is the largest equestrian sculpture in the world. A 40-acre (160,000 m) tract in Las Colinas is also under development to become the site of the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas, which is expected to be completed in November 2010. The Dallas Cowboys played at Texas Stadium in Irving from 1971 to 2008. The city plans to demolish the old stadium to build an extensive mixed-use project that spans State Highway 114. The lead developer is Forest City Enterprises, which is rehabilitating the old Mercantile complex in downtown Dallas into a Rockefeller Center-style mixed-use project. Part of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which serves the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, is inside the city limits of Irving.