Four years after the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, the number of uninsured Americans fell by 11 million, according to reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC reports looked at the first nine months of 2014 and found
the number of Americans without health insurance was roughly 37.2
million – down from 48.6 million in 2010. Although 11.9 percent
of the population still lacks coverage, this is the lowest
percentage in more than 15 years.
One report found that, during the nine months
analyzed, about 27 million people had been without coverage for
more than a year. Some 6.8 million people were covered through
the Affordable Care Act (ACA) during July-September 2014, the
Associated Press reported.
CDC: 11M fewer uninsured since Obamacare http://t.co/ZPV82wZCpq
— Brad Snow (@bradpsnow) March
24, 2015
The most dramatic increases were seen when the health insurance
marketplace first went into effect on October 1, 2013 and the
number of uninsured individuals fell by 7.6 million.
“[That’s] much bigger than can possibly be explained by the
economy,” Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family
Foundation told AP. “The vast majority has to be due
to the Affordable Care Act.”
The CDC numbers come from a National Health Interview Survey
conducted with 85,224 people between January and September 2014.
People were asked three questions: whether they were uninsured at
the time of the interview, whether they were uninsured at least
part of the year, and whether they were uninsured for more than a
year at the time of the interview.
READ MORE: Health subsidies
for millions at risk with Obamacare back before Supreme Court
The CDC figures are lower than those quoted earlier this month by
the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which
found that 16.4 million Americans had gained healthcare coverage.
However, HHS looked at a longer period of time in their estimate
– between October 2013 and the first quarter of 2015.
According to AP, Obama says the law is “working even better
than anticipated,” but House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)
says it amounts to a “legacy of broken promises.”
The overall decline in uninsured Americans comes from
government-run marketplaces that sell health insurance, the
loosening of Medicaid eligibility requirements in more than half
the country, and allowing young adults to stay on their parents’
health plans until they turn 26.
READ MORE: 16
million Americans gained health coverage under Obamacare, HHS
says
Twenty-eight states and Washington, DC have expanded their
Medicaid programs. Another 22 states have kept their stricter
restrictions on Medicaid eligibility.
The goal of Obamacare was to reduce the number of uninsured
Americans and the latest figures suggest growing progress towards
the goal, but this achievement could be threatened by a lawsuit
being heard by the US Supreme Court. The suit, King v. Burwell,
centers on whether federal subsidies in 34 states that have not
set up their own health insurance markets (“exchanges”)
are legal under the law.
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MORE: Job stress ‘behind 120,000 American deaths a year’
The plaintiffs argue a particular section of the law refers only
to “exchanges established by the state” when mentioning
eligibility for subsidies – meaning it explicitly excludes
marketplaces established by the federal government. The
government is arguing that the phrasing may be unfortunate, but
that the entire law clearly intends that the federal tax credits
apply to people using the federally established exchange, not
just the state ones.
If the Supreme Court rules against the government, it would mean
the end of federal subsidies to more than seven million Americans
in 37 states. This, in turn, would disrupt the fragile framework
of the law that orders Americans to purchase insurance or face
tax penalties, while forbidding the insurers to turn anyone away.
Insurance companies, Democratic lawmakers and liberal activists
argue this would effectively destroy the ACA.