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posted by LaminatorX on Friday October 31 2014, @07:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the take-your-medicine dept.

We know that about 10 million more people have insurance coverage this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act but until now it has been difficult to say much about who was getting that Obamacare coverage — where they live, their age, their income and other such details. Now Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz report in the NYT that a new data set is providing a clearer picture of which people gained health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The data is the output of a statistical model based on a large survey of adults and shows that the law has done something rather unusual in the American economy this century: It has pushed back against inequality, essentially redistributing income — in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies — to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades. The biggest winners from the law include people between the ages of 18 and 34; blacks; Hispanics; and people who live in rural areas. The areas with the largest increases in the health insurance rate, for example, include rural Arkansas and Nevada; southern Texas; large swaths of New Mexico, Kentucky and West Virginia; and much of inland California and Oregon.

Despite many Republican voters’ disdain for the Affordable Care Act, parts of the country that lean the most heavily Republican (according to 2012 presidential election results) showed significantly more insurance gains than places where voters lean strongly Democratic. That partly reflects underlying rates of insurance. In liberal places, like Massachusetts and Hawaii, previous state policies had made insurance coverage much more widespread, leaving less room for improvement. But the correlation also reflects trends in wealth and poverty. Many of the poorest and most rural states in the country tend to favor Republican politicians.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 01 2014, @11:19AM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday November 01 2014, @11:19AM (#112164) Homepage Journal

    I never said it's always been that way. I said it's been that way successfully in society for a long time; witness a society without taking money for charity at gunpoint. What we currently have is a small minority that through mass stupidity gained power and did something that society did not, and still does not, want.

    Now YOU have a choice: to listen to the dictates of your collective society and vote for someone who is in favor of repealing the ACA or state plainly that you do value your own rights above those of society and vote for someone in favor of keeping it. You can't have it both ways.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 2) by tathra on Saturday November 01 2014, @05:37PM

    by tathra (3367) on Saturday November 01 2014, @05:37PM (#112227)

    Now YOU have a choice: to listen to the dictates of your collective society

    no, thats not my responsibility, thats the responsibility of society's representatives, the responsibility of the government. its also the responsibility of government to provide the things which society needs to be prosperous regardless of that society's wishes. there's a lot of people who don't want their money going to pay for roads, but modern society can't function without them. there's a lot of people who don't want their money going to support the army, but a society has to be able to defend itself otherwise it will simply be conquered.

    every other first-world country in the world and lots of 3rd-world countries have proven that universal healthcare is well worth the benefits and is significantly cheaper than the US "healthcare system" scam. when people who can't pay for it go to the ER, it comes out of the public's pocket at a significantly higher cost; i can't understand why people want to continue paying so much more for so little benefit when its possible to pay significantly less for a hell of a lot more benefit.

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 02 2014, @12:04AM

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday November 02 2014, @12:04AM (#112287) Homepage Journal

      its also the responsibility of government to provide the things which society needs to be prosperous regardless of that society's wishes.

      End of discussion, tyrant wannabe.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by tathra on Sunday November 02 2014, @12:47AM

        by tathra (3367) on Sunday November 02 2014, @12:47AM (#112291)

        its also the responsibility of government to provide the things which society needs to be prosperous regardless of that society's wishes.

        End of discussion, tyrant wannabe.

        end of discussion, since abusive ad hominem strawmen are the only things you seem able to use.