Sources: Kaiser
Last updated: January 28, 2015
Rate of People Lacking Health Insurance by State
Description: These charts list the best and worst off states in terms of insurance coverage. The blue rows indicate states that voted for President Obama in 2012 and the red rows indicate states that voted for Governor Romney in 2012.
Discussion: 18 of the 20 states with the fewest uninsured people per capita are Democratic and 16 of the 20 states with the most uninsured people per capita are Republican. The differences are drastic. A person in Texas is 6 times more likely to lack insurance than a person in Massachusetts.
Notably, 3 of the 4 worst states, are blue- Nevada, Florida and New Mexico, cutting against the broader trend. However, it is worth noting that these three states are each swing states to one extent or another. For example, although all three voted for President Obama, all three also have Republican governors and perhaps the governorship is more important with regard to state healthcare policy.
Unfortunately, the gap between the red and blue states is getting rapidly wider at present. The blue states have generally accepted the Medicaid expansion and are promoting the PPACA exchanges, each of which significantly improves the numbers of people who people have health insurance, while the red states have generally not implemented the Medicaid expansion or set up state level exchanges.
It is also interesting to consider this data in light of the data on lifespan by state.
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