Red vs. Blue: Insurance Coverage for Children

By MannyGoldstein at Sat, 2005-11-12 09:07

Bottom Line:

Surprise! Red states are pretty good at covering children's healthcare. There's a good reason for this... and it's not what you think!

Data:

State	Liberality Score	Liberality Rank(1)	%Children Without Insurance(2)	Rank Child Insurance Coverage
South Dakota	64%	40	4.6	1
Virginia	85%	27	4.7	2
Minnesota	107%	15	4.8	3
Utah	36%	50	5	4
Maine	120%	9	5.6	5
Delaware	117%	11	5.7	6
Iowa	99%	20	5.8	7
Vermont	152%	3	5.9	8
Tennessee	75%	32	5.9	8
Florida	90%	25	6.8	10
Mississippi	67%	36	6.9	11
Washington	116%	12	6.9	11
Ohio	96%	22	7.4	13
Connecticut	124%	6	7.4	13
New York	146%	4	7.7	15
Oregon	109%	14	7.9	16
Indiana	65%	38	8.1	17
New Hampshire	103%	18	8.1	17
Maryland	130%	5	8.2	19
Kentucky	67%	37	9	20
Kansas	59%	42	9.3	21
Wisconsin	101%	19	9.7	22
Rhode Island	154%	2	9.8	23
Michigan	107%	16	9.8	23
Arizona	81%	29	9.9	25
Massachusetts	168%	1	9.9	25
New Mexico	98%	21	10	27
South Carolina	71%	35	10.2	28
California	122%	8	10.3	29
Idaho	44%	48	10.8	30
Texas	63%	41	10.9	31
New Jersey	114%	13	11.3	32
Montana	65%	39	11.3	32
Colorado	91%	24	11.6	34
Alaska	58%	44	11.9	35
Illinois	123%	7	12.3	36
Pennsylvania	105%	17	12.3	36
Wyoming	42%	49	12.6	38
Oklahoma	53%	46	12.7	39
Hawaii	119%	10	13.3	40
Alabama	59%	43	13.6	41
Georgia	71%	34	14	42
Nebraska	50%	47	14.2	43
North Dakota	56%	45	14.4	44
West Virginia	77%	31	14.5	45
Nevada	95%	23	14.5	45
Arkansas	82%	28	14.7	47
North Carolina	78%	30	15	48
Missouri	86%	26	19.7	49
Louisiana	74%	33	22.4	50

Discussion:

A surprise here: the top two states here are red states! This threw me a little, so I did a little research - here's what's going on: In 1996 the federal government enacted legislation requiring that all low-income children be covered by Medicaid (low-income adults are not so fortunate). So let's suppose that 100% of the people in a certain state were low-income - ironically, this means that 100% of children would have healthcare insurance (through Medicaid), and thus this impoverished state would be at the top of this list! For more information, see http://www.cms.hhs.gov/schip/about-SCHIP.asp

References:

(1) Liberality Score for a state is the ratio of the votes received by Kerry to the votes received by Bush in the 2004 Presidential election. Data from http://uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/data.php?year=2004&datatype=national&def=1&f=1

(2) Information Please Almanac, 2002 http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0106394.html (sourced from U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, March 2003)

Red vs. Blue: Infant Mortality

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Red vs. Blue: Insurance Coverage for Children

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