Shame

Watching the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act makes me proud of West Virginia and its governor, Earl Ray Tomblin. Tomblin decided in May to expand Medicaid under the act, after many West Virginians urged him to do so.I hear that around 50,000 low income West Virginians have signed up in the first few days.

Sadly, many states--and especially the former slave states of the south--have chosen not to do this. The New York Times sums it up pretty well:

A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help, according to an analysis of census data by The New York Times.

Can you say "racism?"

I'm quite a Dante fan and can only imagine how much fun the Poet had in assigning real estate in hell to people he thought deserving. Given the opportunity, I'd save some of the choicest spots for those who could have helped people and chose not too. Shame on them. Let me say that again in Shakespearean:
"Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame."

MORE ON THAT (MINUS THE HELL PART) from CNN here.

THE REAL DEAL. Here's economist Dean Baker on the real reason some folks would rather shut the government down than let some people get health insurance.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED