According to a new Gallup survey, the uninsured rate in the U.S. has dropped to a new low level of 11.7 percent.
I think we can safely assume the uninsured rate will continue to drop well into the future unless a Republican becomes president, and that brings up to the significance of Medicaid expansion.
Gallup finds that the seven states with the largest drop in their uninsured rates all expanded Medicaid and help run their marketplace.
Arkansas has the largest drop, from 22.5 percent to 9.1 percent, followed by Kentucky, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington state.
At one point during the first Republican primary debate held prior to the main debate featuring the top 10 candidates, the bottom 7 candidates were asked to weigh in on the expansion of Medicaid in Ohio.
Each of the candidates vowed to oppose Medicaid expansion and said Ohio Governor John Kasich made the wrong decision by participating in the expansion under Obamacare.
To the best of my knowledge, Kasich is the only candidate out of all 17 Republican presidential candidates who does not oppose the expansion of Medicaid.
To put it another way, Kasich is the only candidate who does not believe we should deny healthcare to hundreds of thousands of people for purely ideological reasons. Virtually every other candidate also believes we should repeal Obamacare and replace it with... something.
That may make Kasich more humane that the other candidates, but it also means he has no chance of becoming the Republican presidential nominee.