FollowWhile Obama still wrestles the immigration issue, there are great results he should enjoy.Supporters of the Affordable Care Act promised two goals, to reduce the number of uninsured people and to cut the health costs. Not one, but three surveys reached the conclusion that Obamacare achieved a partial success so far. In total, around 8 to 9.5 million people got a health insurance, so it is clear that uninsured rate decreased. For the last half a year, Urban Institute claims that the uninsured rate decreased from 17.4 percent to 13.9%. Gallup presents almost identical numbers, while Commonwealth Fund found a larger decrease of the uninsured rate, from 20 to 15 percent. Official numbers will be available only in the next fall, but these initial estimations are positive.
Uninsured rate decreased strongly in Texas and Massachusetts
During the first open registration until 31st of March, around 8 million people enrolled for insurance. Six million people now have access to Medicaid. Thanks to Commonwalth Fund, we found out that the largest decrease in the uninsured rate happened in low and middle income groups and Latinos. About 60 percent of the people covered now by Obamacare reported at least a visit to the doctor, filling a prescription or getting hospitalized. For a similar 60 percent of them, they could not have accessed these services prior to Obamacare. Massachusetts only had around 5 percent of uninsured population in January, the lowest for any state, while Texas, the highest, had 27 percent.
While access to health care is crucial, there are other conclusions as well. In April only 43 percent of the Americans supported the law and 51 percent did not. Even if the strongest opponent did not support the Democrats, it is bad news for the party for the primaries in November. The Republicans will definitely have an advantage on the longer term.
Unfortunately, the Afordable Care Act has not been very popular to start with and the trend of losing popular support is there, even is minor. For Obomacare to actually work, it needed young people to enroll in order to have a counter financial balance for the older population. The younger people might have health issues more than expected.
The $95 dollars fine for not buying a health insurance is a strong reason for more than half of the pople to obey the law.
Medical costs are going down, but it is not yet certain if Obamacare has a direct implication over the process. The uninsured rate decreased for now, with more info coming in the next period.
