The number of uninsured Americans climbed by 700,000 people during President Trump’s first year in office, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2017, 29.3 million people were uninsured, a 0.1 percentage point increase from 2016, when the number of uninsured had fallen to a record low of 28.6 million people.
The total brings the uninsured rate in the U.S. to 9.1 percent. The highest rate of uninsured was among younger adults between the ages of 25 and 34, at 17.2 percent. Insurers often say this group, known as “young invincibles” because they tend to be healthy and are more willing to take risks, is among the hardest to persuade to buy health insurance.
Obamacare allows people to stay on a parent’s health insurance plan until the age of 26, but after that they must buy coverage on their own or obtain it through a job or the government.
Despite the increase of uninsured people, the number was lower in 2017 than in 2010, when 42.5 million people in the U.S. were uninsured. Obamacare helped reduce the number of uninsured through allowing low-income people to sign up for Medicaid, which is funded almost entirely by the government, and through allowing people to sign up for private coverage on the exchanges that the government helps them pay for.
The report, part of the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey, used data from 18 states to arrive at its findings, which it updates every quarter. The data show that people have different ways of obtaining health insurance. Most adults under the age of 65, or 136.6 million people, have private health insurance coverage, including 8.5 million covered under the Obamacare exchanges.
Health insurance coverage appears to have reached a peak in 2015. The following year, the number of uninsured among all age groups remained the same, at 28.6 million.
The changes in health insurance numbers have contributed to political attacks from both sides in Congress. Democrats and other defenders of Obamacare say the number of uninsured has risen because the Trump administration is working to undermine Obamacare, including by ending advertising to encourage people to enroll. Republicans sought to repeal the law throughout 2017, which may have led to confusion among the public, Democrats say.
At the end of 2017, Trump ended subsidies known as cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers, but the effect on premiums wasn’t felt until 2018. The CDC hasn’t reported the uninsured figures for that period.
Members of the Trump administration, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, have pointed out that premiums began to increase before Trump took office, causing people who didn’t receive subsidies to view the health insurance plans as less attractive and instead choose to go uninsured.
