Republican Health Care Policies are Making the Poor, the Southern and the Racial Minorities the Victim of Not Having Health Insurance

Business as Usual for Republicans

One of the greatest tragedies of 2013 has been the failure of Republican led states to expand Medicaid to take advantage of federal government payments for enrollees under the new guidelines.  What will this mean, well here is the short answer.

It was always the case that the nation's medically uninsured were disproportionately non-white, poor and southern. These people were the prime targets of the Affordable Care Act, which aimed to bring them coverage in part by the federally-funded expansion of Medicaid.

Two surveys released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation show how the demographics of the uninsured will change, thanks to the ACA. More precisely, the surveys show how they will change as a result of inaction -- the failure of 25 states to expand Medicaid, which the ACA's drafters expected to address the coverage problems of the poor. One study examines the overall characteristics of the new uninsured, and the other focuses on their racial and ethnic backgrounds.

The short version is this: henceforth, America's uninsured population will be composed even more disproportionately of minorities, the poor and residents of the South. 

Wow, to paraphrase what Pogo has said way in the past, “we have met the enemy and it is Republicans”.

How can any politician, any American,  any decent person know this and still oppose Medicaid expansion?  Well maybe none of those descriptive terms apply to Republicans who have blocked Medicaid expansion.  But there is one description of these politicans that does apply.  Each and every one of them has access to a fantastic government subsidized health insurance plan.  Every single one.