When gubernatorial ego supersedes citizen well-being

In name of states’ rights, millions could go uninsured

By Greg Sargent, WashPost

Iowa governor Terry Branstad has now become the fifth GOP governor to vow that his state will not opt in to the Medicaid expansion in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. He joins the ranks of Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, Florida’s Rick Scott, South Carolina’s Nikki Haley, and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker.

It’s worth keeping a running tally of how many people could go without insurance that would otherwise be covered under Obamacare if these GOP governors make good on their threat.

The latest rough total: Nearly one and a half million people.

As Sarah Kliff noted the other day, the Kaiser foundation has done a state by state analysis meant to gauge how many people would gain coverage under the Medicaid expansion that didn’t have coverage before. Keeping in mind that this study was performed in 2010, and that these are estimates, here's how many people we’re talking about in each state:

• Iowa: 74,498
• Louisiana: 277,746
• Florida: 683,477
• South Carolina: 247,478
• Wisconsin: 127,862

The approximate total now, according to Kaiser’s numbers: 1,411,061.

(Continued here.)