Ten states have uninsured rates below 5 percent. What are they doing right?

Ten states have uninsured rates below 5 percent. What are they doing right?

Universal health care remains an unrealized dream for the United States. But in some parts of the country, the dream has drawn closer to a reality in the 13 years since the Affordable Care Act passed.

Overall, the number of uninsured Americans has fallen from 46.5 million in 2010, the year President Barack Obama signed his signature health care law, to about 26 million today. The US health system still has plenty of flaws — beyond the 8 percent of the population who are uninsured, far higher than in peer countries, many of the people who technically have health insurance still find it difficult to cover their share of their medical bills. Nevertheless, more people enjoy some financial protection against health care expenses than in any previous period in US history.

  • ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io
    6·
    10 months ago

    More fun to mention 11 “states” at a 5.1% uninsured cutoff, because number 11 is Peurto Rico – a US territory that you might expect to be less developed. Since people are forced to run javascript to see the list, I’ll copy it here up to the 6% point:

    1. Massachusetts
    2. District of Columbia
    3. Hawaii
    4. Vermont
    5. Iowa (what’s a red state doing here?)
    6. Rhode Island
    7. Minnesota
    8. New Hampshire
    9. Michigan
    10. New York
    11. Puerto Rico
    12. Connecticut
    13. Pennsylvania
    14. Wisconsin
    15. Kentucky (what’s a red state doing here?)
    16. Delaware
    17. Ohio (what’s a red state doing here? OH will worsen over time; to be fair they only recently became solidly red)
    18. West Virginia
      …

    (22) California (6.5%… worse than we might expect for CA)
    …

    (52) Texas ← ha! Of course Texass is last. 16.6% uninsured in the most notable red state showing us how to take care of people

    The general pattern is expected… the bottom of the list is mostly red states.