You've heard it a million times, but in the wake of attempts to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, it might be worth stating again: Millions of Americans now have health insurance because of Obamacare.
The law certainly has some shortcomings, including bureaucratic red-tape that is preventing many eligible immigrants from getting coverage and many who are eligible for marketplace subsidies from getting the money they need to pay for their plans. Some consumers have complained that their high-deductible plans barely amount to insurance, and have dropped the plans that they say simply aren't worth the $100 or more a month they're spending on premiums.
But far more people have insurance and most of them will likely keep it. And that's an outcome whose benefits few would contest.
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New data gathered by the Urban Institute found that the percentage of non-elderly adults who had continuous health coverage over the previous year increased from 69.6 percent in September 2014 to 73.9 percent in September of this year.
The increase in coverage was particularly pronounced among families with low and moderate incomes. The insured rate rose 10.8 percent for those with household incomes less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, nearly triple the overall rise.
But the poor are still the ones most likely to lack insurance. Seventy-four percent of families above 138 percent of the poverty level reported having the same health coverage over the past year, compared to only 56.6 percent of low-income families.
While PPACA guarantees coverage, it doesn't necessarily ensure that a beneficiary will be able to stay on the same plan forever. Some insurers have ditched the marketplaces or been kicked off, including a number of non-profit co-ops that failed to generate the necessary revenue to remain solvent. And the largest for-profit participant in the marketplaces, UnitedHealth, is threatening to leave because of lackluster profits.
But there is scant evidence that PPACA has made the health care market less stable for average consumers. Furthermore, advocates hope that the federal and state exchange websites will eventually make switching plans as easy as any other purchase.
"More people are shopping around for coverage, but overall, the percent of the insured who have switched plans does not seem to be rising," said Kathy Hempstead, who directs coverage issues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "Improvements in health IT systems should reduce the impact of switching coverage on continuity of care."
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