Yahoo – AFP,
17 March 2015
Insurance advisors help people sign up for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, on February 5, 2015 in Miami, Florida (AFP Photo/Joe Raedle) |
Washington
(AFP) - The number of Americans without health insurance has dropped by 16.4
million since key portions of the Affordable Care Act took effect, the largest
reduction in uninsured in four decades, officials announced Monday.
The federal
government hailed the data as President Barack Obama's administration prepared
to commemorate next week the fifth anniversary of the signing of a law that
took effect with many technical issues.
"When
it comes to the key metrics of affordability, access, and quality, the evidence
shows that the Affordable Care Act is working, and families, businesses and
taxpayers are better off as a result," Health and Human Services Secretary
Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in a statement.
She said 14.1
million adults gained insurance since the first open enrolment period in
October 2013 through March 4 of this year, leading the adult uninsured rate to
drop from 20.3 percent to 13.2 percent during that period.
Under the
law's more popular provisions, another 2.3 million young adults gained coverage
from 2010 by being allowed to remain on a parent's plan until age 26.
The
program, known by many simply as "Obamacare," seeks to make health
coverage available to a broad cross-section of Americans, for whom health care
is often too expensive, is not offered through their employer, or is otherwise
inaccessible.
It also
provided an expansion of Medicaid, the social health care program for the poor,
which most of the 50 US states accepted.
American
pollster Gallup cites different figures for the rate drop. It said the US
uninsured rate dipped from 18 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to 12.3
percent by the end of February 2015, quoting its Gallup Healthways Well-Being
Index.
The
government's announcement comes as the US Supreme Court weighs the fate of the
Affordable Care Act, in a case that challenges the legality of the law's
subsidies.
The narrow
question before the court is whether some seven million people who signed up for
Obamacare via the government's website are actually entitled to tax subsidies
that make the coverage affordable.
Legal
scholars say that a ruling against the tax credits provision would gut the law
so thoroughly that it would be tantamount to striking down the measure
altogether.
A decision
by the high court is expected in June.
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