Aaron Carroll focuses in on the above chart from Adrianna McIntyre and Josh Fangmeier to bolster his claim that the ACA’s rate shocks (or “the plight of the bros”, as he calls it) are “a distraction”:
Weep for the bros, if you like, those “lucky duckies” who earn too much to qualify for subsidies. Me? I can’t believe how many of those who are 19-25 live in poverty. All of those red column young adults on the left side earn less than 138% of the poverty line. All of them would qualify for the Medicaid expansion. Yet many of them, possibly most of them, won’t get it because of all the states who are refusing the expansion.
I think they are who health care reform was about. I think it’s pretty horrific that next year a large chunk of them will continue to be uninsured. But I guess the tragedy du jour will remain the “rate shock” for the bros.
Previous Dish on the distributional effect of Obamacare here and here.
The Dish 