A new survey found more progress in lowering the country’s uninsured rate under Obamacare, but hurdles with cost and awareness of benefits remains.
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The survey released Wednesday showed that as of March, 15.5 million fewer adults between the ages of 18-64 were uninsured compared to September 2013, a nearly 44 percent reduction. The survey is from the left-leaning think tank Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The 2016 uninsured rate was nearly 20 million, compared with 35 million in 2013, according to the survey.
Much of the decline was due to the Medicaid expansion in 31 states and Obamacare’s first and second open enrollment periods.
The survey found that the percentage of uninsured adults in states that didn’t expand Medicaid was 14 percent, nearly double the rate of 7 percent for states that expanded Medicaid.
However, the survey found a decrease in coverage gains from the second and third open enrollment periods.
From September 2015-March 2016, there was a small decline in the uninsured rate of 0.5 percentage points. That is similar to an estimate from Gallup that showed a 1.3 percentage point drop.
The slowdown suggests that “many of the remaining adults who could benefit from the [Affordable Care Act] are either not aware of the benefits, live in states that have not made the Medicaid expansion available to them or feel coverage is still unaffordable,” according to a report from the Urban Institute.
The think tank suggested increasing the availability or level of financial assistance to help deal with affordability problems.
The survey was based on responses from 7,520 people in March 2016 and 7,911 in September.
The survey comes a day after a recent report that estimated premium increases for Obamacare plans in 2017.
