More Than 48 Million Americans Remain Uninsured
Yesterday, the U.S. Census Bureau released the 2011 findings on health insurance coverage in the United States. Despite a small reduction in the uninsured by 1.4 million from 2010 to 2011, 48.6 million, or 15.7 percent of Americans, remain without health insurance. Another area of disappointment comes from the number of uninsured young adults: 27.7 percent of the uninsured fall in this age group. While this group saw a decrease of 2 percent—partially due to Obamacare’s extension of coverage to dependents up to age 26—it is much less than President Obama and his Administration promised. In August, the President claimed, “Nearly 7 million young people have health insurance because they’re able to stay on their parents’ plans.” Moreover, as Heritage’s Drew Gonshorowski warns, there are unintended consequences from these “gains” in coverage: The net effect may hide the substitution effect. He writes, “In the case of insuring more young people, recent analysis shows that Obamacare encourages young adults to enroll in dependent coverage and drop their own coverage, causes employers to stop offering coverage, and will likely increase premiums.” The report also revealed that the alarming trend of dependence on government for health insurance continues to grow for the fifth year in a row, reaching 99.5 million, or 32.2 percent in 2011. Of those, over half—16.5 percent of all Americans—were enrolled in Medicaid in 2011, a program that provides low-quality care and severe access to care problems. A recent study shows that one in three doctors will no longer accept new Medicaid patients. Obamacare makes matters worse by adding millions of Americans into this struggling program. In addition, uninsured rates are expected to continue under Obamacare. Despite spending $1.68 trillion on Obamacare’s coverage expansion provisions, 30 million Americans are projected to remain uninsured in 2022. Read more on The Foundry >>
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