COVID-19 & Healthcare

“ObamaCare” is working in states where GOP governors and/or legislatures did not sabotage the Affordable Care Act by failing to establish a state-run insurance exchange and/or failed to enact expanded Medicaid coverage for its citizens , i.e., the Red State “coverage gap.” Credit: McClatchy

The Gallup Survey reports Uninsured Rate Drops More in States Embracing Health Law:

The uninsured rate among adults aged 18 and older in the states that have chosen to expand Medicaid and set up their own exchanges in the health insurance marketplace has declined significantly more this year than in the remaining states that have not done so. The uninsured rate, on average, declined 2.5 percentage points in the 21 states (plus the District of Columbia) that have implemented both of these measures, compared with a 0.8-point drop across the 29 states that have taken only one or neither of these actions.

As Gallup previously reported, the states that have chosen to expand Medicaid and set up their own healthcare exchanges had a lower average uninsured rate to begin with: 16.1% compared with 18.7% for the remaining states — a difference of 2.6 points. The already notable gap between the two groups of states widened in the first quarter to 4.3 points.

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Katie McDonough, assistant editor for Salon, offers a scathing critique of the GOP’s new class of jokers: Meet the “rising stars” of the dumbest rebrand ever — Welcome to the lamest reinvention in modern history. Why these “young guns” are just as scary as the old male ones:

To answer the questions Andy Kroll raised in his Wednesday Mother Jones piece exposing New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez as a terrible shithead — yes, Martinez probably is the next Sarah Palin. And yes, Martinez is also, as Kroll points out, probably the next Chris Christie. Which is to say that she is currently being floated as a great savior of the Republican Party, even though she is terrible.

But while Martinez and some of the “young guns” being scouted by the National Republican Congressional Committee may make for some more demographically representative campaign ads, the policies they have built their careers on are pretty indistinguishable from the sea of white men who have been driving the GOP into the ground. And it’s these policies that matter most to the politically engaged and highly motived voting blocs — unmarried women of color, in particular — who are shaping contentious elections and whom the GOP so desperately want on its side.

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