The South and Southwest leads the nation in the number of insured

The U.S. Census Bureau released its annual report yesterday saying that 46.3 million Americans are without health insurance.  This is mainly contributed to the major recession the country has been facing since early last year where so many people have lost their jobs along with their health insurance.  Also the poverty rate has increased as well from 12.5% in 2007 to 13.6% in 2008 which translate to 39.8 million Americans living in on income below the poverty line (the highest since 1960).  It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that it has a lot to do with the large number of jobs losses also...

Also the Institute of Southern Studies broke it down even further:

Divided by region, the uninsured were mostly likely to be found in the South (18.2 percent) and West (17.4 percent). Texas lead the nation with the highest percentage of residents who are uninsured, at just over over 25 percent. The other states rounding off the top five states with the highest average rate of uninsured people include: New Mexico (23 percent), Florida (20.5 percent), Louisiana (20 percent), and Arizona (19.6 percent).

So it basically says that the South and the Southwest are the main regions were the most impoverish and uninsured people live.  Ironically, they are also the regions where there are so many Blue Dog "Democrats" and socially conservative Republicans are cock blocking any kind of health care reform.  If one connects the dots even further I bet you can find a majority of them are sponsored by health insurance corporations or something related or affiliated with the health care industry.

It's a damn shame because you would think empathy would be more widespread in a time where so many people are suffering and struggling to make ends meet.  Instead we have clowns on the internet, town hall meetings and public forums like Congress acting out screaming lies and misinformation about undocumented immigrants getting health care or the bankrupting of the nation to block any type of health care reforms that would help the majority of these clowns neighbors (literally).