Many Insured by Obamacare Voted for Trump: Inside the Numbers

[portlander23]

Many Insured by Obamacare Voted for Trump: Inside the Numbers
Dante Chinni
NBC News

One of the big issues the GOP is facing: Many of the communities with the biggest increases in health insurance coverage since 2008 were Republican-leaning places that voted for President-elect Donald Trump.

In December, a Wall Street Journal story outlined how many counties that voted heavily for Trump also saw increases in health insurance coverage greater than the overall national increase. Those counties, categorized by the American Communities Project, were largely rural and white, with many holding large evangelical populations, and scattered throughout the key states that won Trump the presidency.

To be clear, an increase in coverage does not necessarily equal support for the ACA. Just because people follow a government mandate doesn't mean they support the mandate. But the data suggest that if the ACA is "repealed" and not "replaced," communities that voted for Trump would see some of the biggest drops in coverage.

That's the complicated terrain the GOP now finds itself facing as it tackles Obamacare. And as the idea of "repeal and replace" gets closer to reality, you can expect those political concerns to exert an increasingly strong pull on the coming Trump administration and the new Washington.

[RKP5637]

1. If they don't want healthcare, then fine, they don't need healthcare. They have made it

abundantly clear they don't want it, that somehow they will get it magically on their own. Good luck with that, but if that's what they want, then fine. I used to care, but I don't anymore. Maybe they can ask Putin for healthcare, apparently they are in love with him.

[GP6971]

2. Which raises an interesting question.

What is Russia's health care program other than vodka?

[RKP5637]

3. Good question! Certainly that's what Boris Yeltsin liked! n/t

[flamingdem]

5. They thought he'd make it cheaper!! Believe me I've asked them and

they complain about cost - many are justified it is expensive in California if income is 40 grand ish - and they want to pick their doctor - but they think he'll lower prices!!!

[RKP5637]

9. I've often wondered why we can't have just one health plan for everyone. It's ridiculous the

way it is in the US, and the cost of many prescriptions is outrageous.

[elleng]

4. I suspect they DO support ACA.

What they DON'T support is 'Obamacare.'

Our real problems are an uninformed, misled and ignorant electorate. These problems are only solved with hard, long-term work.

[flamingdem]

6. I agree, they've been so manipulated - Trump said he'd lower rates

so of course they believed him

[SharonAnn]

12. Any of the GOP options that I've heard would raise rates and lower coverage.

[Coventina]

7. I wish they were only killing themselves, and not their fellow citizens. n/t

[RKP5637]

10. Quite true!!! It's too bad Americans are always fighting each other than working together to

improve life for everyone.

[pnwmom]

8. The writer is wrong about "repeal and replace" getting closer to reality.

Only the repeal part is likely to happen for the foreseeable future.

[TheDebbieDee]

11. I just read today on George Takei's site a thread in which some posters

were under the impression that Obamacare and the ACA are two different things! Perhaps they believed Obamacare was for URBAN Americans and the ACA was for everybody else... Don't know!

The STUPID of the American public is truly unbelieveable! And scary!