If Georgia expanded Medicaid, Atlanta's uninsured rate would fall by more than 56 percent under Obamacare.
But Georgia isn't expanding Medicaid. That means, according to a new Urban Institute analysis, the city of 5.5 million people will only see its uninsured rate fall by nearly 25 percent instead.
The Urban Institute's new analysis shows that seven major cities in Medicaid expansion states are decreasing the number of uninsured by an average of 57 percent. Seven cities that aren't in Medicaid expansion states, meanwhile, are decreasing the number of uninsured by just 30 percent.
The cities analyzed: Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Columbus, Detroit, Seattle, and Denver on the expansion side, and Houston, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Memphis, Atlanta, and Miami on the non-expansion side.
The Urban Institute estimates that if Medicaid were to expand in the seven non-expansion cities, the number of uninsured would instead fall by an average of 52 percent. In other words, the number of uninsured could decrease by an additional 22 percentage points if these cities' states accepted the Obamacare-funded Medicaid expansion.
Whether that will happen in more conservative states, particularly in the South, is very much an open question. But it seems that more Republicans are opening up to the idea as long as the expansion is pegged to reforms. In Louisiana, for instance, Senator David Vitter, a potential 2015 gubernatorial candidate, said he's open to a reform-based Medicaid expansion. Republican-controlled Michigan and Indiana, meanwhile, already expanded Medicaid with reforms in mind.
