The uninsured rate among U.S. adults declined to 11.9% for the first quarter of 2015 -- down one percentage point from the previous quarter and 5.2 points since the end of 2013, just before the Affordable Care Act went into effect. The uninsured rate is the lowest since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in 2008.
The percentage of uninsured Americans climbed from the 14% range in early 2008 to over 17% in 2011, and peaked at 18.0% in the third quarter of 2013. The uninsured rate has dropped sharply since the most significant change to the U.S. healthcare system in the Affordable Care Act -- the provision requiring most Americans to carry health insurance -- took effect at the beginning of 2014. An improving economy and a falling unemployment rate may also have accelerated the steep drop in the percentage of uninsured over the past year. However, the uninsured rate is significantly lower than it was in early 2008, before the depths of the economic recession, suggesting that the recent decline is due to more than just an improving economy.
Republicans can scream all they want to, but barring a complete disaster of a SCOTUS ruling in June (still possible, mind you) the Affordable Care Act is here to stay. The percentage of uninsured adults in the US has dropped by a third, from 18% to under 12%, in just 18 months. It will drop even more when red state voters finally get sick of picking up the tab for completely uninsured Americans and force Republicans to expand Medicaid in all 50 states
And I don't think that day will be that far off..
Thanks for excerpting that so we don't have to click through and read. It is a pragmatic assessment - not unlike others that suggest simply that if the economy is good in 2016, any Democrat will will even if it's Hillary.
ReplyDeleteKind of disgusting to see a professional pundit refer to our President as "O," though (although a bit classier than Maureen Dowd manages). Maybe I'm misremembering, maybe blogging wasn't as ubiquitous, but I don't recall that sort of casual dismissiveness towards George W. Bush (angry rants at him, talk of the "Bush Crime Family," yes, but not that level of personal belittlement). It has a sort of ... ante-bellum sound to it.