GOP governors refusing to expand Medicaid will lead to deaths

A new article in the respected Annals of Internal Medicine reports on a study of the effects of the Massachusetts 2006 health care reform.   It compared mortality rates, in adults ages 20 to 64, before and after reform in Massachusetts versus a control group with similar economic and demographc conditions.

The results showed a 30% reduction in deaths from all causes  (8.2 per 100,000)  compared with the control group.  When only deaths from conditions that are amenable to health care were considered, the results were significantly higher.

Another way of calculating the benefit showed that for every 830 adults gaining health insurance coverage, 1 death per year could be prevented.

Journalists have extrapolated from these figures and predicted that, in the states that have refused to expand Medicaid through the federally funded plan in the Affordable Care Act, some 6,000 more people a year will die.  Think about that when you decide whether to re-elect Gov. Nathan Deal.

And, the most positive view of all:   in those states that have expanded Medicaid through the ACA plan, some 24,000 deaths every year will be prevented.

Now, even as a Republican who hates everything associated with "Obamacare," do you really want to run your re-election campaign on getting rid of that plan?    Some of them are waking up to this reality and are afraid their constituents will also.   That's why we have to have this new Select  Committee to investigate "Benghazi" for the 14th time.

Ralph