ObamaCare and the South

    "I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting."
    [Mark Twain] 

The strongest opposition to the Affordable Health Care Act continues to come from politicians in the South. That’s a shame because many residents of the South need the law so desperately.
by Charlie Leck

The Huffington Post had an interesting description of the woes that the U.S. South is feeling these days (read it here). Here’s a list of the things the article describes and discusses…

Poverty rates are higher in the South.

Minimum wages are much lower in the South.

Economic ladder much harder to climb in the South.

Many in poverty in the South are denied access to affordable health care.

Southern states have a higher rate of obesity.

Southern states have a higher percentage of cigarette smokers.

Southern states have a higher rate of teen births.

If ever there was a place that could use the Affordable Health Care Act it is the South; however, the southern states continued to disfavor the law at a far greater rate than the rest of the nation.

A study by the Southern Education Foundation, a highly respected education philanthropy, says that a majority of students in public school throughout the American south fall into the low-income category. (The study is based on children in public schools pre-school through 12th grade.)

The American South dominates the cases of diabetes according to statistics released in 2011 by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention.

The minimum wage across the south is frighteningly low. That’s mainly because Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina have no minimum wage guaranty. Arkansas and Texas, interestingly, are at $7.25. George is $5.15. The minimum wage in Florida is adjusted annually by using a cost of living formula (Florida's rate it is $7.93 in 2014).

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