The U.S. uninsured rate has leveled out, after taking an initial dive under provisions of the Affordable Care Act, new government data show.
About 28 million Americans were uninsured during the first six months of the year, or 8.9 percent, unchanged from the first half of 2015, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The uninsured population was much bigger six years ago, as President Obama’s healthcare law was being passed. In 2010, about 48 million Americans lacked health insurance. That population plummeted as the law’s marketplaces opened in 2014 and states expanded their Medicaid programs, folding most of them into government-sponsored plans or private plans subsidized with taxpayer dollars.
The uninsured rate is now at its lowest ever, around 9 percent, a fact the Obama administration frequently notes.
“Incoming data continues to show the national uninsured rate has reached a record low in 2016, thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of coverage to 20 million Americans and counting,” said Marjorie Connolly, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Yet the initial gains made under the law have recently slowed, as the marketplaces enter their fourth year of enrollment. Of adults not eligible for Medicare, 12.4 percent still lack coverage. Twenty percent have public coverage, and 69 percent have private coverage.
The uninsured rate is lower among children, with 5 percent lacking coverage. Forty-three percent have public coverage and 54 percent have private coverage, according to the new report.
And while about 20 million people have gained coverage since Obamacare was passed, more consumers are buying plans with high deductibles, requiring them to pay more out of pocket before their benefits kick in. One in four people had high-deductible plans in 2010, compared to more than one in three people with high-deductible plans last year. This year, nearly 39 percent of consumers bought high-deductible plans.
The report comes two days after healthcare.gov and the state-run marketplaces opened for enrollment, which lasts until Jan. 31. Consumers in many states are facing big premium increases and fewer choices, as insurers have left the marketplaces under heavy losses. The Obama administration is doing more targeted outreach this year, in hopes of attracting more marketplace shoppers and pushing down the uninsured rate further.
The report was based on a survey from January to June 2016 of 48,549 people. Respondents were asked whether they were uninsured at the time of interview, uninsured at least part of the year prior to the interview and whether they had been uninsured for more than a year at the time of the interview.
