Viewpoints: Health Law ‘Pushing Back Inequality’; Mississippi’s ‘Shame’; Medicaid Vote In Maine
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
The New York Times' The Upshot:
Obama’s Health Law: Who Was Helped Most
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 coverage — where they live, their age, their income and other such details. Now a large set of data — from Enroll America, the group trying to sign up people for the program, and from the data firm Civis Analytics — is allowing a much clearer picture. The data 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. (Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz, 10/29)
Bloomberg:
Obamacare Spreads The Wealth Around
The Upshot at the New York Times has a terrific set of graphs and charts on the Affordable Care Act that explains something important: In the real world, Obamacare is more or less doing what it was supposed to do. About 10 million more people have insurance now than a year ago (and this doesn't count young people newly added to their parents’ insurance). The takeaway is just how big a deal Medicaid expansion is -- and what the consequences are of delaying it, thanks to the Supreme Court decision giving states the ability to opt out and the willingness of some Republican governors to do so. (Jonathan Bernstein, 10/29)
Los Angeles Times:
The Shame Of Mississippi, Where Racism And Stupidity Killed Obamacare
om Politico and Kaiser Health News comes this jaw-dropping look at Mississippi, the national graveyard of the Affordable Care Act's promise. ... The author, Kaiser Health News correspondent Sarah Varney, ascribes the state's failure to errors, ignorance, racism and tea party-style ideology, among other distasteful qualities. The majority of the 138,000 Mississippians left stranded by the state's refusal to opt in to Medicaid expansion are black. Hospitals, which were counting on the expansion to make up for federal funding they'll be losing as the ACA takes hold, are unable to serve the uninsured even as charity cases. What makes Mississippi typical among Medicaid-refusing states is that its health statistics are dismal. What makes it stand out is that its socio-economic statistics are the worst in the nation. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/29)
New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Mississippi Was Working To Provide Poor Folks Health Insurance -- Until Obama
A lengthy piece at Politico.com about Mississippi further highlights the Republican hypocrisy that has characterized the fight against President Barack Obama and the Affordable Care Act. Reporter Sarah Varney says that officials in Mississippi, the sickest state in the nation where a quarter of residents don't have health coverage, began working on a plan to expand healthcare coverage there in 2007, the year before Obama was elected. ... Then came Phil Bryant, ... who proudly proclaims his support from [the tea party]. The end result is that 138,000 Mississippians who would get Medicaid with an expansion won't be getting it. (Jarvis DeBerry, 10/29)
USA Today:
Attacks Against 'Obamacare' Are Outdated
Even though it's been the law of the land for over four years now, Republicans cannot stop campaigning on the promise that they're somehow going to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Claiming that you're going to repeal "every word" continues to be a major applause line with conservative audiences and many Republican governors are still resisting the Medicaid expansion, at least long enough to get those anti-ACA voters to the polls. But denouncing "Obamacare" is already running out of steam as a political strategy and by 2016, it may be entirely kaput. So Republicans should enjoy riding that horse now, because by the next cycle, it will be too lame to be mounted. (Amanda Marcotte, 10/29)
The New Republic:
Think The Midterms Don't Matter? Tell That To 70,000 Poor, Uninsured People In Maine.
Maine’s current governor is Paul LePage, a Republican elected in the 2010 Tea Party wave whose defining legacy ... will be his profound antipathy to the social safety net that so many people rely on in Maine, New England’s poorest state. ... he has vetoed—not once, but thrice—the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which would cover nearly 70,000 people in the state—that is, more people than live in Portland, the state’s largest city. (Alec MacGillis, 10/29)
The Denver Post:
Renew Federal Child Health Insurance Program
Congress should renew funding for the successful Child Health Insurance Program in the coming lame duck session — a year in advance to forestall any possible lapses in the crucial service.
Currently, about 60,000 Colorado children and 900 pregnant women rely on CHIP for health coverage, a program that fills a gap for those who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and not enough for private health plans. Known in Colorado as Child Health Plan Plus, the program has won bipartisan federal support since its creation in 1997. (10/29)
