Uninsured Dropped By 8 Million Under Obamacare
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The Commonwealth Fund has found that 6.8 million people have signed up during the 2015 open enrollment period.
A Commonwealth Fund survey has assessed the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the uninsured population and found that the number of uninsured, working-age Americans has decreased by seven million since 2010, when Obamacare was implemented. The number, however, is lower than previous estimates.
In November, The National Journal reported the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated there would be 13 million individuals covered under Obamacare, while HHS officials set the number at between nine ten million.
Other studies also show deeper gains, including a New England Journal of Medicine published a study which determined 10.3 million Americans had gained coverage since 2012. In addition, the Urban Institute found 10.6 million more individuals are insured since the launch of the exchanges and Medicaid expansion in roughly half the states, while Gallup reported earlier this month the uninsured rate had seen a more than four-point drop from last year, falling to 12.9 percent.
Health IT Outcomes reported HHS was forced to acknowledge it over counted by hundreds of thousands the Obamacare health insurance enrollments for this year – an error resulting from including people who purchased dental plans and revealed by Bloomberg News – which was uncovered by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Meanwhile, of the more than seven million individuals who have already signed up for coverage through the Marketplace, as many as 87 percent are eligible for subsidies to help defray the costs of their insurance.
The Commonwealth Fund found, however, that during the 2015 open enrollment period 6.8 million individuals across 37 states either reenrolled or newly enrolled through the federal website by the first of the year. An additional 600,000 individuals enrolled through one of the 14 state-operated marketplaces, and there have been nearly 10 million new enrollments in Medicaid since October 2013.
The survey further found the number of individuals for whom costs prevented access to medical care declined from 43 percent in 2012 to 36 percent by 2014. The study concluded that the Affordable Care Act has played an active role in reversing national trends in healthcare
“Getting millions of Americans good, secure health insurance is an essential step toward improving their health and helping our healthcare system work more efficiently,” said Dr. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund.