September 8, 2016

Obamacare Continues To Do Better Than Initial Projections

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The latest CDC figures on the uninsured are out, and they’ve continued their downward trend since Obamacare was passed. The uninsured rate for those under age 65 clocked in at 10.0 percent,1 compared to a projection of 11 percent from the CBO back in 2012 (this was the projection published after the Supreme Court made Medicaid expansion optional but before the exchanges were up and running). This means that Obamacare has been consistently running ahead of projections for the past two years.

The numbers were down for all races and ethnicities and for all ages except for children in poverty. The number of people with private insurance was up from 61 percent in 2013 to 66 percent in the first quarter of 2016. Coverage through the Obamacare exchanges was up from 3.3 percent last quarter to 4.0 percent in the first quarter of 2016.

So we’re still making progress, due partly to Obamacare and partly to the economic recovery. But we still have a ways to go.

1The uninsured rate for all ages was 8.6 percent.

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

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