The number of uninsured Americans has fallen by some 3.8 million people, representing a 1.3 percent decrease, since the implementation of Obamacare in January,
The Wall Street Journal reports, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
National Center for Health Statistics to be released Tuesday.
In total, 41 million people lacked health insurance in the first quarter of this year, according to
The New York Times.
The uninsured rate has fallen from a high of about 16 percent in 2010, according to the Times, the highest figure since the National Health Interview Survey began tracking in 1997.
“Regardless of what you think of the (Affordable Care Act), there should be no doubt at this point that the law is increasing the number of people insured,” said Larry Levitt, director at the Program for the Study of Health Reform and Private Insurance at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
But M.I.T. economist Jonathan Gruber, whose research helped shape the law, according to the Times, said it’s far too early for the numbers to carry much weight.
“This is really a three-year process of implementation,” he said. “Trying to draw strong conclusions from one quarter of one year is impossible.”
The flood of people who enrolled in late March, and whose coverage did not begin until April or May, are not accounted for in the survey.
Obamacare critics argue that the numbers are smoke and mirrors.
While the Obama administration announced in April that some 8 million people had bought coverage through the exchanges, critics respond that the figure means nothing since it’s unknown how many of those people were previously uninsured, according to the Journal, which notes that the Department of Health and Human Services isn’t tracking that and the CDC report didn’t mention it.
During the survey period — January through March 2014 — the number of people with private insurance increased marginally, 1 percent, from 59.5 percent in 2013 to 60.5 percent, the Journal reports.
The age group that saw the largest decline in uninsured was 19- to 25-year-olds, which realized a 6 percent drop from the first quarter of 2013 to the same period in 2014, according to the Times.
Twenty-one percent of that demographic remained without coverage in 2014, down from 27 percent. This has been the trend since 2010, when the law began allowing dependents to remain on their parents’ health plans until age 26.
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