As the coronavirus makes its “second sweep” across the United States, states with the highest percentage of uninsured residents have been hit the hardest, reigniting the debate over healthcare and insurance and the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The last 13 states which have not expanded Medicaid under the ACA, including Texas, Florida, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, South Dakota, and Wyoming are now seeing major outbreaks of the coronavirus. Let’s discuss the implications of healthcare on the 2020 election in today’s post.
Texas, Georgia, and Florida, three states with a large population but without Medicaid expansion, have seen a huge surge in coronavirus cases over the past two weeks. Although some states, like California, are still seeing outbreaks after expanding Medicaid, the majority of new cases are concentrated in the Sun Belt states which have not expanded it.
A large number of uninsured people complicates outbreak and disease prevention. It discourages those without insurance from seeking testing and treatment, and it fails to protect those with underlying health conditions from seeking treatment.
These southern Sun Belts states are reigniting the debate over the ACA. A recent study has shown that more and more people are relying on the ACA for healthcare coverage as they became unemployed due to the outbreak, and over 500,000 people signed up for the ACA this year, especially in April and May. Yet, despite this, the Trump Administration is still trying to strike down the law in courts.
If the Trump administration repeals the ACA, that would not only lead to tens of millions of Americans losing healthcare coverage, it would also lead to those who have already been infected with coronavirus paying more in insurance premiums because insurance companies would likely define exposure to coronavirus a preexisting condition.
Even though Trump has said that he plans to replace the ACA with something better, we have still not seen any proposals for replacing ACA while he is trying to get the law repealed.
A large number of challenges have since risen in the Sun Belt states where Medicaid was not expanded. For example, people without health insurance tend to avoid seeking healthcare unless it is absolutely necessary. This may result in people unwilling to test themselves for the virus, increasing the number of potential carriers infecting other people. In addition, people with health complications such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity make up a large percentage of uninsured people. These people are more likely to get infected than normal people.
Uninsured people receiving coronavirus care can also put a financial strain on hospitals, which may result in some rural hospitals closing. Due to the cancellation of elective surgeries, many rural hospitals in areas with few coronavirus cases have been put under strain to remain open from the lack of revenue. Although the federal government will reimburse hospitals for treating uninsured people, the solutions are far from pretty.
Medical insurance also marks a stark racial divide in American society. People of color, especially Blacks and Hispanics, are overwhelmingly more likely to be uninsured than whites. In Texas, Hispanics are over three-quarters more likely to be uninsured than whites.
With these issues, healthcare is shaping up to be a major issue for the 2020 election. For example, Biden’s campaign says that he will provide Medicaid to all eligible people regardless of whether the state has expanded Medicaid or not, among other proposals to improve healthcare in the U.S. This may result in large states without the Medicaid expansion, like North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, to vote for the Democratic Party, which has historically been more open to a better healthcare system. And this is what we are seeing: in all three of those states (among other Sun Belt states), Biden’s support is rising.
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