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cal04

(41,505 posts)
Tue Aug 5, 2014, 04:19 PM Aug 2014

Obamacare causes steep drop in uninsured — in deep red states

Gallup finds that three of the largest drops in the rate of the uninsured just happened to take place in states with the most hard-fought Senate races:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/174290/arkansas-kentucky-report-sharpest-drops-uninsured-rate.aspx

Arkansas and Kentucky lead all other states in the sharpest reductions in their uninsured rate among adult residents since the healthcare law’s requirement to have insurance took effect at the beginning of the year. Delaware, Washington, and Colorado round out the top five. All 10 states that report the largest declines in uninsured rates expanded Medicaid and established a state-based marketplace exchange or state-federal partnership.

In Arkansas, the rate of uninsured dropped from 22.5 percent in 2013 to 12.4 percent now — a change of over 10 percentage points.

(snip)
The Kentucky example is particularly interesting. Remember, Mitch McConnell still regards the the law that created this drop in the uninsured among his own constituents as a “disaster.” Yet hundreds of thousands have signed up for coverage on the Kentucky exchange. Interestingly, as Joe Sonka has documented, the biggest drops in uninsured have occurred in eastern Kentucky — which is to say anti-Obama coal country, a.k.a., Mitch McConnell country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/08/05/obamacare-causes-steep-drop-in-uninsured-in-deep-red-states/

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