Numbers don't lie
Surprise: ObamaCare working best in states that embraced it
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ObamaCare is riding high at the moment. In the past few weeks, enrollments crossed the 7 million mark, the CBO projected the law would cost $104 billion less than estimated over the next decade, and the uninsured rate fell to its lowest level since 2008.
Add to that list this news from Gallup: The uninsured rate is falling fastest in states that fully embraced the health-care law. In states that accepted ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion and set up their own exchange programs, the uninsured rate has fallen by an average of 2.5 percentage points this year. In states that took neither of those actions, the uninsured rate has fallen by an average of 0.8 percentage points. As Gallup puts it, states that have "implemented two of the law's core mechanisms... are realizing a rate of decline that is substantively greater than what is found among the remaining states that have not done so."
In a way, that finding may seem obvious — states that did more toward covering the uninsured are covering more of their uninsured. But that's exactly the point Democrats should be making ahead of the midterm elections: ObamaCare works best when implemented to its fullest, and Republicans have done everything possible to stop full implementation.
If framed effectively, that news could make it tricky for Republicans to keep pooh-poohing the law as a colossal failure. Sooner or later, they'll be preaching that message to the very people whom the law has helped.