Obamacare Is Working (In States That Aren’t Sabotaging It)

Obamacare Is Working (In States That Aren’t Sabotaging It)

The Affordable Care Act is working just fine — in states that haven’t gone out of their way to sabotage it.

That’s the conclusion of Gallup’s latest health care poll, which was released on Tuesday. The poll finds that the 10 states that have seen the sharpest drops in their uninsured rates since 2013 have all participated in the health care law’s Medicaid expansion, and set up some sort of insurance marketplace.

Gallup Obamacare chart

Furthermore, Gallup notes that although people across the country are increasingly obtaining coverage, the states that have fully participated in Obamacare are experiencing much greater gains than those that haven’t. The uninsured rate has dropped 4 percent in the 21 states that have expanded Medicaid and set up their own state exchanges; in the 29 that have taken one or neither of these steps, it has fallen only 2.2 percent.

Gallup Obamacare chart 2

There’s a clear partisan breakdown to the law’s effectiveness — 9 of the 10 states that have experienced the largest reductions in their uninsured rates are governed by Democrats (with the exception being New Mexico, where Republican Susana Martinez is governor). By contrast, each of the 10 states with the highest percentage of uninsured residents is governed by a Republican.

Making matters worse, as Tara Culp-Ressler points out at ThinkProgress, the states that have not fully participated in Obamacare are the ones that could use the most help, as they “had higher uninsurance rates to begin with, and they’re home to people who tend to be poorer and sicker than the residents in other states.”

Clearly, the states that wanted the Affordable Care Act to work have been more successful in providing their citizens with health insurance. Or, in other words: Elections matter.

AFP Photo/Joe Raedle

Want more health care news? Sign up for our daily email newsletter!

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Judge In Trump Georgia Case Says Willis Can Continue Prosecution
Fani Willis , right, in Fulton County courtroom

March 15 (Reuters) - The Georgia judge overseeing Donald Trump's trial on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat in the U.S. state said that lead prosecutor Fani Willis can remain on the case, so long as she removes a deputy she had a personal relationship with.

Keep reading...Show less
Russian Witness Against Biden Received $600K From 'Trump Associates'

Alexander Smirnov, center, leaving courthouse in Las Vegas on February 20, 2024

Photo by Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal

I’ll bet you didn’t know that it is possible in this great big world of ours to live a comfortable life being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for doing basically nothing. Well, not nothing, exactly, but the money you get is unattached to normal stuff we are all familiar with like a job, complete with job-related duties and office hours and a W-2 and maybe even a job title. The money can thus be described by what it is not, which is aboveboard and visible. Instead, this kind of money often ends up in the kinds of accounts said to be “controlled” by you or others, which is to say, accounts which may not, and often do not, have your name on them.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}