Driven by the 2014 provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the percentage of uninsured adults fell by 30 percent over a 12-month period, according to new analysis.
The number of uninsured adults fell from 17.7 percent in September 2013 to 12.4 percent in September 2014, according to Urban Institute analysis conducted for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That's a drop of 30.1 percent in one year.
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Analysts said the drop was due to millions of previously uninsured people enrolling in health insurance exchange plans and Medicaid under PPACA. Most of the gain in coverage was among the low- and middle-income adults targeted by those provisions.
"These new survey data provide more evidence that there has been a significant expansion of coverage to millions who were previously uninsured, thanks to marketplace plans and the expansion of Medicaid," said Katherine Hempstead who directs coverage issues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "We will see how much this trend will continue during this year's open enrollment."
Adults in states that implemented the law's Medicaid expansion sustained the large coverage gains, researchers said.
The uninsurance rate dropped 36.3 percent in states that implemented Medicaid expansion, compared with 23.9 percent in nonexpansion states; 54.7 percent of uninsured nonelderly adults lived in nonexpansion states in September 2014.
PPACA's second open enrollment period began last month and runs through Feb. 15. The administration said this week that about 765,000 people have enrolled in an exchange plan since enrollment began Nov. 15.
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