John McCormick and Greg Giroux, reporting for Businessweek:
Among the nation’s 435 congressional districts, 207 have coverage levels below the average of 85.3 percent for the non-institutionalized civilian population, the census data shows. Of those, 105 are held by Republicans, while Democrats in mostly urban areas represent 100 and two are vacant. The rankings are based on the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, which includes margins of error for each district.
In addition to the South, Western states dominate the map of congressional districts with below-average coverage rates. Besides often being under Republican control, those areas also tend to have sizable immigrant populations and poverty.
The mismatch between the policy votes of the districts’ federal representatives and the needs of their constituents may be partly the result of voter registration and turnout patterns.
“The constituents that they respond to are not the ones without health insurance,” said Eric Heberlig, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.