A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine and reported by the Lexington Herald Leader indicates that, except for some counties that include Native American reservations and parts of the Lower Mississippi region, eight counties in the state of Kentucky showed the largest decline in life expectancy for the country from 1980 to 2014. All eight counties are in the 5th Congressional District represented by Republican Congressman Hal Rogers. Hal Rogers has represented the 5th Congressional District for all that time. And he voted for the AHCA bill just passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
While I cannot definitely narrow this down to the 5th Congressional District, the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation estimates that Kentucky has seen the largest percent increase in Medicaid recipients since the ACA came into effect — a 105% increase from a little over 600,000 people per month to over 1,200,000 per month. Given that the unemployment rate in the 5th Congressional District in December of 2016 was reported to be 12.1%, I’d say it is a good guess that a large number of those Medicaid recipients are in Hal Rogers’ district.
And before you ask, this is one of the most Republican areas in the state of Kentucky. Since 2000, Rogers’ victories have ranged from approximately 74-84% of the vote up to the 2014 Election. No Democrat ran against Rogers in 2016.
I suppose I should tip my hat to the Lexington Herald Leader for running anything on this subject matter.