Uninsured Rate Drops as Obamacare Starts, Gallup Finds
By Caroline Chen - Jan 23, 2014
The percentage of adults without health insurance in the U.S. fell this month to the lowest level since the end of 2012 as the core provisions of Obamacare took effect, a Gallup poll found.
The uninsured rate dropped to 16.1 percent in the Jan. 2-19 poll, from 17.3 percent in December, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The uninsured rate fell more for nonwhites and for those 35- to 64-years-old.
The ability to extend health care to most of the nation’s 48 million uninsured will be a main measure of success for the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The people benefiting most so far appear to be those who are unemployed, where Gallup said the uninsured rate fell 6.7 percentage points.
“The unemployed remain the subgroup with the highest uninsured rate at 34.1 percent, but the initial decline among this group suggests the health-care law may be working as intended for unemployed adults,” Jenna Levy, a methodologist at Gallup, wrote in the report.
The Affordable Care Act, which mainly took full effect Jan. 1, marks the largest U.S. expansion of health insurance in more than 40 years. The law set up government-run insurance exchanges where Americans can buy private health plans with the help of federal tax credits. It also expanded eligibility in some state-run Medicaid programs for the poor.
MORE...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/uninsured-rate-drops-as-obamacare-starts-gallup-finds.html