No one should have to make the choice between their health and paying the bills. Yet Republican governors and legislatures in 24 states remain so entrenched in the politics of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), that they’re willing to risk leaving nearly 5.7 million of their own people uninsured by refusing to expand Medicaid with federal funding, forcing many of those in need of affordable healthcare to make the impossible choice between paying for health insurance or satisfying other basic necessities.
This means that in today’s political climate, a major deciding factor in determining whether or not people qualify for health care coverage comes down to what party happens to control their state. Out of the 19 states with the highest rates of uninsured people in the country, 14 of them are led by a Republican governor. Out of those 14 GOP governors, 10 have publicly said they categorically oppose Medicaid expansion.
But do the Republicans provide some alternative? Do they have a better idea perhaps, maybe something to add with which to defend their position? Well, simply put, no. The Republicans vehemently reject the Affordable Care Act, and replace it with nothing.
State-by-state numbers, from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, show that states that have worked to fully implement Obamacare — which involves agreeing to both accept the law’s optional Medicaid expansion and to setting up their own insurance marketplaces — have seen the largest drops in their uninsurance rates over the past six months.
Meanwhile, the 10 states with uninsured rates equal to or greater than the national average, are Republican states such as, Alabama (16%), Louisiana (17%), Oklahoma (18%), Arizona (19%), Mississippi (19%), South Carolina (19%), Georgia (20%), Florida (21%), Nevada (21%), New Mexico (21%) and Texas (25%).
The sad part is, it’s precisely these states that have refused to expand Medicare and fully embrace the Affordable Care Act that could have benefited from it the most. These states 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.
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