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Statisticians Study Who Was Helped Most By Obamacare

HughPickens.com writes 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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  1. how many small businesses has Obama killed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    They're driving us out
    We're closing up shop
    Lonely is the mom-and-pop
    Where are the protestors?
    Where are their slogans and signs?
    This will be a swift decline

    1. Re:how many small businesses has Obama killed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      That is, unless the wealthy suddenly drop their trillions back into the pockets of the people who actually do the hard work.

      You got any actual workers left in NZ or does every single person want to be a white collar chair moistening desk jockey. That's your fucking problem right there. Poor elitists who want to be wealthy.

    2. Re:how many small businesses has Obama killed? by RoccamOccam · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      They opposed it because they oppose everything that Obama does. Whatever he does, they support the opposite. No one cared about Common Core originally, and it was implemented in 43 states. But as soon as Obama said it was a good idea, everyone on the started freaking out and saying it was the worst EVAH.

      Funny, I remember Republicans supporting Obama on:

      • The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
      • The Water Resources Reform and Development Act
      • The Farm Bill
      • The Home Heating Emergency Assistance Through Transportation Act

      • The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act

      Nearly every key aspect of it comes from the GOP plan that Heritage came up with around 1989.

      Right. A 1989 plan from a conservative think tank that never had enough support to even be proposed when Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and Presidency. That's a plan that "belongs" to the Republicans. That's the 11,000-page Affordable Care Act. Right.

      I know Democrats are embarrassed by the plan, the plan's rollout, the plan's implementation, and the plan's deleterious effects on our country, but come on! Face the music!

  2. Re:Lemme guess by gsslay · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Why guess when you can RTFA? Then you might get the right answer. Or was that not what interested you?

  3. Re: Lemme guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Who has obamacare helped? The lazy idiots who don't take care of their bodies (obesity, drugs, smoking), mostly minorities, breeding like rabbits, getting hurt by being reckless and shooting each other, and generally being wastes of life.

    Who has obamacare hurt? Hardworking Americans who take care of themselves and now need to support the rest of these worthless scumbags and their bad decisions.

    Since I'm in the second group, I might as well just say it like this - Fuck you Obama and your shitty Obamacare.