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Millions Left Without Despite Affordable Care Act

nytimes.com

A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help, according to an analysis of census data by The New York Times.

26 states, largely controlled by Republicans, have rejected Medicaid expansion, which is the medical insurance program for the poor.  Those states are home to about half of the country’s population, but their residents make up 68 percent of poor, uninsured blacks and single mothers. About 60 percent of the country’s uninsured working poor are in those states. Among those excluded are about 435,000 cashiers, 341,000 cooks and 253,000 nurses’ aides.

Those left stranded without insurance don’t make quite enough to qualify for federal subsidies, and are not poor enough to meet current Medicaid requirements. 

Where do poor and uninsured Americans live?  A map by the New York Times provides the answer.