Last week’s Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act has placed a spotlight on the expansion of Medicaid benefits that the legislation envisioned. Reactions to the Court’s ruling, which gave states the right to opt out of the expansion, again illustrate the state-level differences in our political culture. Already a number of states, notably Florida, have declared their states will not be going along, while others (including California, New York, and Illinois) have embraced the measure.
THIS INTERACTIVE MAP on the PBS News Hour website allows you to see where each state stands with respect to the plan and the number of eligible recipients who will be affected in each.
Readers may also be interested in the maps below, showing the US House and Senate votes that led to the passage of the health reform bill. Click on the maps to see larger maps and full legends.
US House vote on March 21, 2010,
by congressional district, showing yeas and nays by party.
US Senate vote on December 24, 2009, by state.
Maps courtesy of Kurykh on Wikimedia Commons.
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The Affordable Care Act is a good solid law now. In the next few years—even eighteen months—millions upon millions of people of all ages and income levels will gain in a huge way better health care. The narrow-minded GOP lawmakers who will keep attempting to thwart this good bill will find it harder and harder as time goes on.~~~~~Thanks for providing these interesting maps.
Sam–I agree with you. Republican office-holders need to be careful–by attempting to thwart this bill they are at risk of alienating large constituencies who stand to benefit from the ACA, as well as others who are just curious to see what its true results will be. Elements of this bill are highly assailable–why not be specific and work to modify those?
Our nation was built on compromises. There were compromises in the Constitution. Emancipation was a compromise. Without compromises we would never have become a nation or gotten where we are. Sometimes you’ve got to move on from what’s occurred and take up the next phase of the struggle toward what you consider to be good or just.