Slightly more than seven in 100 adult residents of states that chose to expand Medicaid currently do not have health insurance — less than half the rate of those without coverage in states that didn't expand Medicaid.
That is one of the key findings of an Urban Institute analysis of Americans with and without health insurance. Funded by the Robert Wood Foundation, the study charted a steady and impressive decline in Americans without health coverage since 2013, a decline that was far sharper in the Medicaid expansion states.
Overall, the Urban Institute analysis showed, the uninsured rate fell from 17.6 percent in September 2013 to 10.4 percent this past September. Among other findings:
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Coverage rates climbed 10.1 percentage points among young adults (aged 18-30);
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Rates climbed 12.4 percentage points among Hispanics;
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Rates climbed 15.6 percentage points among adults in families with annual incomes less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or $27,724 for a family of three.
"Despite the gains, individuals in these same groups remain the most likely to be uninsured, so continued enrollment efforts should be targeted at them," researchers said.
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The effect of Medicaid expansion was profound. In states that chose to expand the coverage, the uninsured rates fell by 54 percent, compared to 25 percent in states that didn't choose to expand coverage.
"The good news is that the major decline in the rate of people without insurance is basically holding steady through the third quarter of 2015," said Kathy Hempstead, who directs coverage issues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "Yet it is hard not to notice the big gap in coverage rates between states that have and states that have not expanded Medicaid, particularly among the population with the lowest income."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
