Yesterday I had a lengthy post in which I noted that the claims by certain Republicans/"MAGA" types that the COVID-19 pandemic was limited to "blue" areas and "big cities" (wink, wink) is quickly unraveling...at least here in Michigan.

Today, I've run the numbers and put together similar Red/Blue and Urban/Rural breakouts for another extremely closely-watched swing state: Wisconsin.

For Michigan, I was able to separate out the City of Detroit itself from the rest of Wayne County. I also included the wider "Metro Detroit Area", which consists of both Oakland and Macomb County along with the part of Wayne County outside of Detroit.

I'm a lot less familiar with Wisconsin, and they don't break out Milwaukee separately anyway, so I went with Milwaukee County, Dane County (which includes the 2nd largest city in the state, Madison), and the Rest of Wisconsin. Here's what the breakout of COVID-19 cases has looked like over time. Once again, it's really only relevant after the state reached 100 cases:

NOTE: BEFORE reading below, read my explainer from last November on the Risk Corridor Massacre lawsuit and potential Medical Loss Ratio implications.

OK, got all that? Good.

Well, sure enough, this morning the U.S. Supreme Court issued their ruling, and it wasn't even close:

A big Obamacare decision from SCOTUS this morning: The court rules 8–1 that insurers who lost money under the Risk Corridors program have a right to payment from the government AND damages for unpaid amounts. https://t.co/PjODO35oKe

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 27, 2020

This was an easy case. Only Justice Alito dissented, complaining that the court mandates "a massive bailout for insurance companies that took a calculated risk and lost." Dude really hates the ACA! https://t.co/PjODO35oKe

Since tracking and analyzing data is what I'm best known for...and since I'm mostly stuck sitting in front of the computer all day whether I like it or not these days anyway...I've started my own daily COVID-19 spreadsheet.

Again, I'm not the one who compiled the data itself--many other teams with far better resources than I have are doing that--but I'm pulling their work together and adding some additional context, such as per capita info by state/territory.

Nationally:

• 5.44 million tests have been completed in the U.S. (1.6% of the population)
• 26,500 more Americans tested positive today. 987,000 have tested positive to date (3.0 per thousand)

The U.S. is going to break 1 million positive cases sometime Monday afternoon.

For the past month, I've spent an awful lot of time tracking COVID-19 cases and fatalities on a state-by-state level. I'm obviously not the only one doing this; there's literally dozens of other much more respected and capable organizations and websites doing so, and in fact my data originally comes from several of those sources (primarily Worldometers and the COVID Tracking Project).

I have, however, included a few extra data points which some sites haven't in order to add some perspective:

Since tracking and analyzing data is what I'm best known for...and since I'm mostly stuck sitting in front of the computer all day whether I like it or not these days anyway...I've started my own daily COVID-19 spreadsheet.

Again, I'm not the one who compiled the data itself--many other teams with far better resources than I have are doing that--but I'm pulling their work together and adding some additional context, such as per capita info by state/territory.

Nationally:

• 5.18 million tests have been completed in the U.S. (1.6% of the population)
• 35,400 more Americans tested positive today. 960,000 have tested positive to date (2.9 per thousand)

The U.S. is going to break 1 million positive cases sometime Monday.

Since tracking and analyzing data is what I'm best known for...and since I'm mostly stuck sitting in front of the computer all day whether I like it or not these days anyway...I've started my own daily COVID-19 spreadsheet.

Again, I'm not the one who compiled the data itself--many other teams with far better resources than I have are doing that--but I'm pulling their work together and adding some additional context, such as per capita info by state/territory.

Nationally:

Don't drink or inject bleach, lysol or other disinfectants into your body.

Carry on.

Over 16,000 Signed up for Coverage through Washington Healthplanfinder as Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic Hits Washington Households

• Over 16,000 customers selected a plan for qualified health coverage through Washington Healthplanfinder since March 10, when a special enrollment period was announced in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Additionally, Washington Apple Health (Medicaid) enrollments are increasing.

• The special enrollment period allows anyone uninsured and eligible to enroll in health coverage through Washington Healthplanfinder to sign up by May 8, 2020.

• Additional existing special enrollment periods allow people who have experienced a recent loss of income or loss of employer coverage to sign up.

Since tracking and analyzing data is what I'm best known for...and since I'm mostly stuck sitting in front of the computer all day whether I like it or not these days anyway...I've started my own daily COVID-19 spreadsheet.

Again, I'm not the one who compiled the data itself--many other teams with far better resources than I have are doing that--but I'm pulling their work together and adding some additional context, such as per capita info by state/territory.

Nationally:

• 4.66 million tests have been completed in the U.S. (1.4% of the population)
• 31,500 more Americans tested positive today. 880,000 have tested positive to date (2.65 per thousand)

• Another 2,300 Americans died today. Nearly 50,000 have died to date.
• The U.S. Case Fatality Rate (CFR) now stands at 5.7%.

• The U.S. case count has increased 30% over the past week, and the total U.S. death toll has increased by 44%.

New York:

I've been making a LOT of fuss lately about how important it is for CMS Administrator Seema Verma to give the green light to an official "Open" COVID-19 Special Enrollment Period (SEP) via the federal ACA exchange (HealthCare.Gov). Last week I projected that if every state were to offer a full 60-day "open" SEP ("open" means that any uninsured U.S. citizen or eligible documented resident could sign up without requiring a Qualifying Life Event), somewhere between 2.5 - 3.3 million Americans would likely enroll during that 2-month period.

Of that number, I projected that around 1.8 - 2.3 million additional people would likely reside in the 38 states hosted by HealthCare.Gov, with the remainder living in the 12 states which are offering COVID-specific SEPs (although the deadlines in those states vary, and some do require enrollees to jump through at least minimal hoops to enroll).