Gallup has previously reported a drop in the uninsurance rate among Americans following the rollout of Obamacare last year. Today, they broke down these numbers between states that embraced Obamacare by setting up their own exchanges and expanding Medicaid vs. states that have resisted implementing the law.
The results are no surprise. States that embraced Obamacare—which presumably were more committed to public health in the first place—had lower uninsurance rates to start with and saw bigger declines. The states that resisted were the ones with the biggest uninsurance problems to start with and saw only token declines. In fact, the decline in states that embraced Obamacare was more than triple that in the other states, 2.8 percent vs. 0.8 percent.
These numbers will change a bit over the next couple of months as things settle down and signups are complete, but the relative differences will almost certainly remain huge. Republican governors have been almost unanimously dedicated to sabotaging Obamacare and withholding health care from their own residents, and they’ve been successful. I hope they’re proud of themselves.
