Chad Geary counts on having a strong immune system since he hasn’t had health insurance for more than a year.In late 2007, Geary, an English senior, reached the age limit to remain on his father’s health insurance plan, and he said purchasing a plan of his own would stretch his budget too thin.”If I really wanted to, I could probably afford it — if I stretched,” Geary said.Purchasing health insurance might even require Geary to take out more loans — something he’s reluctant to do because he’s already accumulated student loan debt.Geary is one of the millions in the United States without health insurance, a human face on a complex problem in which figures and studies often obscure the individual human interests at stake.Geary’s particular story is no rarity — young adults, who often also have a low income, are one of the demographic groups more likely to forgo health insurance, comprising 27.6 percent of the total uninsured in the country, according to a June Gallup survey.Louisiana, Geary is no outlier.Nearly one-in-four Louisianians, or 22.4 percent, lack health insurance — the fourth highest percentage of uninsured in the country, according to an Aug. 19 Gallup survey.Louisiana does better than three states: Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas — the state with the largest number of uninsured in the country at 26.9 percent.From the Gallup data, a rough pattern emerges. “Red states,” states that traditionally elect Republicans into national offices, perform measurably worse in the survey than “blue states,” those that traditionally elect Democrats — particularly in the Northeast.No red states appear in the top 10 with the least uninsured, and the best-performing red state, North Dakota, comes in at 15.Republicans largely oppose President Obama and Congressional Democrats’ various health care reform proposals, some of which include ways of expanding or mandating coverage to everyone in the country. But red states have some of the highest numbers of uninsured and would seem to benefit most from heath care expansion legislation, claim proponents of the Democrat-led health care reform efforts.”If you came from another country, if you came from Mars, [the pattern] would seem ironic,” said Robert Hogan, political science professor.When placed in the context of American politics, though, Hogan said the trend is not surprising.”It fits a general pattern of what liberals want and what conservatives want,” he said.Kirby Goidel, political science and mass communication professor and Senior Public Policy Fellow at the Reilly Center, said blue states typically have more robust social safety nets for low-income residents, which can lower the number of uninsured.In Massachusetts, for example, the state with the lowest number of uninsured in the country, a 2006 health-care reform bill mandates health insurance coverage for almost everyone in the state and partially subsidizes plans for low-income purchasers.”Red states tend to be individualistic,” Goidel said.”They emphasize individual responsibility rather than a collective responsibility.”Aside from lower spending on social safety net programs, many red states, particularly in the Southwest, have large Hispanic populations — a group disproportionately likely to lack health insurance, comprising more than 40 percent of the total uninsured, according to the same Gallup survey.Geary said it’s frustrating to live in a state comprised of voters and represented by politicians against some kind of government-subsidized, public health insurance.”It’s crappy to live in a state where people aren’t sympathetic,” he said.As for political pressure, Hogan said the uninsured — the people most likely to benefit from a public health insurance plan — are simply numbered in red states.”The people who would benefit most from this are out voted,” Hogan said._______Contact Nate Monroe at [email protected]