The Affordable Care Act has been in the news this week for two reasons -- on Oct. 1, people began shopping for health insurance on the state-based exchanges for the first time and the federal government was shut down because Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives don't want to fund governmental operations unless the law, also known as Obamacare, is defunded or delayed.
The news has inspired me to post four blogs on the Affordable Care Act. On Sept. 28, I posted the blog "47 Million Americans Lacked Health Insurance In 2012: Will The New State Exchanges Help Them?" On Sept, 29, I posted the blog "18% Of Health Insurance Applications Are Rejected." The two blogs were based on reports by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
On Sept. 30, I reposted the blog "Will Affordable Care Act Help Small Businesses?" Today, I am posting a blog about the 10 states with the worst health insurance coverage. The list includes seven "Red" (conservative) states and three "Blue" (progressive) states. All of the seven Red states said "No" to offering its uninsured people a state health insurance exchange, while the Blue states -- California, Nevada and New Mexico -- said "Yes." (My Sept. 30 blog lists all the states that said "Yes.")
Story No. 4 On Affordable Care Act: The States With The Worst Health Coverage
On Sept. 30, USA Today published an article on the 10 states with the worst health coverage. The list was based on U.S. Census Bureau data that was analyzed by 24/7 Wall St., a financial news website affiliated with USA Today. The website deemed states with the highest percentage of uninsured people as the worst.
For some reason, the article did not list the states with the best health coverage. I will predict now that Massachusetts will be No. 1 when the list is released. And I swear that I correctly guessed the worst before reading the article.
The 10 worst are:
1. Texas • Pct. without health insurance (2012): 22.5% • Unemployment rate (2012): 6.8% (17th lowest) • Poverty rate: 17.9% (11th highest)
2. Nevada • Pct. without health insurance (2012): 22.2% • Unemployment rate (2012): 11.1% (the highest) • Poverty rate: 16.4% (19th highest)
3. Alaska • Pct. without health insurance (2012): 20.5% • Unemployment rate (2012): 7% (22nd lowest) • Poverty rate: 10.1% (2nd lowest)
4. Florida • Pct. without health insurance (2012): 20.1% • Unemployment rate (2012): 8.6% (12th highest) • Poverty rate: 17.1% (17th highest)
5. Georgia • Pct. without health insurance (2012): 18.4% (tied-5th highest) • Unemployment rate (2012): 9.0% (9th highest) • Poverty rate: 19.2% (6th highest)
6. Oklahoma 7. New Mexico 8. Montana 9. California 10. Arizona
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