Such correlations are not meant to downplay very real hardship and loss. Rather, they suggest that Southern white medicalized suffering occurred within historical and ideological frameworks that allowed white men to interpret ACA resistance in way that gave larger purpose to the act of refusing medical intervention. Pain affirmed group identity and a position in a hierarchy that, while hardly at the top, was not at the bottom either. No amount of Yankee logic, information, or public health would change that. Safety nets, provider networks, and other grids linked lower-income white men to
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