How the States are Divided Regarding Health Care and Health Insurance Coverage
The Census Bureau recently took it upon themselves to find out how many uninsured people live in each state, and the results are fairly surprising. The results are summarized in an article in The New York Times entitled, "The Divided States of Health Care." In this article, they have three types of states. Blue states have two Democratic senators and a majority of residents voted for President Obama. Red states have two Republican senators, and a majority of residents voted for Senator John McCain. Purple states don't fit into either category.
The article basically states that people in the red states are less likely to have health insurance coverage than those in the blue states, with those in the purple states being in the middle. For example, people in Texas (a red state) are eight times less likely to be uninsured than people in Massachusetts (a blue state), wherein health insurance coverage is also mandatory. One would think this would mean that people in Republican states would have more to gain in health care and health insurance reform, where less people are insured, than Democratic states wherein the amount of uninsured is significantly less (an average of 21.1% in red states compared to 14.5% in blue states).
However, many Republicans have continually shot down Democratic plans to offer a mandatory or government-run health insurance system, because, as the article says, they are "raising concerns ranging from cost to worries that providing better health coverage for those who now lack it would diminish coverage for those who have it." This is a valid concern, but it might also be shortsighted. Any big change to our health insurance or health care system would cause a dramatic transition between our current system and the new one, and of course there would be more fluctuations in the quality of coverage during that transition period.
Whatever the case, it's obvious to people in both parties that something needs to be done. Hopefully these numbers and figures will give lawmakers more information to use to pass a health care plan that everyone can agree upon. Until then, we'll just have to keep waiting as usual.
