Obamacare has hit a new low. But in this case that's a good thing.
The first national survey by the Centers for Disease Control to include data from 2015 shows that the number of uninsured in the United States has dropped to 9 percent, or 28.5 million people. That means 16.3 million fewer people are uninsured due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Among adults under the age of 65, the uninsured rate fell from 20.4 percent in 2013, before the law's implementation, to 12.7 percent during the first six months of 2015. The percentage of non-Medicare eligible adults with private insurance also increased from 64.2 percent to 70.6 percent.
Recommended For You
The percentage of children with private insurance also increased from 52.6 percent to 56 percent.
The CDC also found that 10.7 million were enrolled in the PPACA exchanges at the end of June. That is higher than the estimate from the federal government, which reported in September that the number enrolled in marketplace plans had dropped from 10.2 million in March to 9.9 million in June.
Reports that some enrolled in the exchange plans were dropping out because of high costs appeared to be supported anecdotally, and the law faces big challenges in convincing the remaining uninsured to sign up.
As other reports have shown, states that chose to expand Medicaid saw larger drops in the uninsured rate than those that declined the federally-funded initiative. In expansion states, the rate dropped from 18 percent to 10 percent, while in non-expansion states it dropped from 22 percent to 16 percent.
The CDC data also demonstrates the challenge PPACA has in attracting younger people to sign up for insurance. Those aged 25-34 were twice as likely (17.6 percent) to lack insurance than adults between the ages of 45 and 64 (8.9 percent).
And yet, it is with the youngest adults that PPACA has effected the greatest change. For those aged 18-24, the uninsured rate dropped by 10.2 percent. Some of these adults may have benefited most from the PPACA provision that allowed parents to keep their children on their insurance plans until age 26.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
