About a million more Americans were uninsured in 2024 compared to 2023, according to a new report on economic, health, and poverty metrics during the last year of the Biden administration from the Census Bureau.
The uninsured rate stayed the same at roughly 8%, but more than 27 million people reportedly had no health insurance for all or part of 2024, compared to roughly 26 million the year prior, the report outlined on Tuesday.
The rate of uninsured Americans has hovered between 8% and 8.5% since 2018, but it has trended downward for the past decade, with the high of 13% uninsured in 2013, the year before Obamacare marketplace insurance plans became available.
About 310 million people had some form of health insurance last year, with two-thirds having some sort of private insurance and the rest with a form of public coverage.
Health insurance coverage is shaping up to be a significant issue for Democrats heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
Many health policy experts say that changes to Medicaid and Obamacare marketplace exchange plans enacted as part of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act this summer will result in the uninsured rate increasing significantly next year.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated in July that the anticipated reduction in funding for Medicaid over the next decade would result in the uninsured rate increasing by 10 million by 2034. From that statistic, the left-wing Center for American Progress estimates that, on average, 33,000 more people will be uninsured in each congressional district by 2034.
Republicans are also facing increasing pressure not to let the extended premium tax credits for Obamacare marketplace plans, passed as a temporary measure by Democrats as part of COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts, expire at the end of the year.
Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance plans are expected to increase by 6.5% next year, and Obamacare exchange plans could have premium hikes as high as 18%.
CLAIMS OF WIDESPREAD FRAUD ADD TO PRESSURE ON GOP OVER OBAMACARE PREMIUM SUBSIDIES
July polling data from Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward, GOP pollsters praised by Trump in the past, found that Republicans in swing districts for House seats could benefit from supporting the extended tax credits.
The poll found that Republicans who supported the tax credits could gain a 6-point advantage over Democrats.
