According to the US Census Bureau, per capita income in Perry County, Kentucky is a relatively prosperous $19,590 (2012 dollars). But with the statewide per capita income average at $23,210 and the national figure at $28,051, how is Perry County “relatively prosperous”?
Why, relative to neighboring Letcher County where the per capita income is $17,544; and Leslie County, where it’s only $15,909, that’s how.
But as Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) tweeted out the other day, the three impoverished Appalachian counties nestled together (dark blue in the bottom map) in southeastern Kentucky have something else in common: in the wake of Kentucky’s vigorous implementation of the Affordable Care Act, they have the lowest uninsured rates in the commonwealth.
In fact, the entire state looks like a before-and-after map of the easing of some great epidemic. Over two dozen counties now have lower uninsured rates for adults under 65 than any county had just two years ago. Todd County is today the only county with as much as 14-17% of its non-elderly adult population uninsured. In 2012 that would have been a lower rate than the vast majority of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
With all the talk in recent months about contraception coverage, religious freedom, corporate rights and federal court cases, it’s easy to get distracted from the heart of the matter when it comes to the ACA: namely, that it’s the largest transfer of wealth to the poor and working-class in over a generation, all so that people can have access to affordable health care. And it’s working.
h/t: Harold Pollack, Sarah Kliff
crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/
