Gallup: Uninsured Rate At 5-Year Low As Obamacare Coverage Takes Hold by Niki2

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Gallup: Uninsured Rate At 5-Year Low As Obamacare Coverage Takes Hold

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 8, 2014 22:06
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Monday, April 7, 2014 2:24 PM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Yeah, but "more people lost insurance than gained it"...riiiight...

The share of uninsured Americans has fallen to its lowest level since late 2008, according to a new Gallup poll ( http://www.gallup.com/poll/168248/uninsured-rate-lowest-2008.aspx?utm_
source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=morelink&utm_term=All%20Gallup%20Headlines), another indicator that Obamacare is reducing the ranks of the uninsured.

In the first quarter of 2014, the percentage of Americans who were uninsured was 15.6 percent -- down from 17.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. Health coverage sold under Obamacare started to take effect in January. It is the lowest rate recorded by Gallup since the last quarter of 2008.

The 1.5-percentage-point drop since last quarter is the equivalent of roughly 4.7 million Americans gaining coverage. Other recent estimates ( http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obamacare-uninsured-national-20140
331,0,5472960.story#ixzz2xXuhljEu) have placed that figure at 9.5 million and 8.3 million. Those estimates included the 3 million young adults who gained coverage under the law prior to this year.

The uninsured rate fell more than a full percentage point from the first half of March to the second half.

Gallup's findings are based on more than 43,500 interviews with U.S. adults, conducted from Jan. 2 to March 31.

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Monday, April 7, 2014 3:34 PM

CHRISISALL

Covering people with pre-existing conditions will no doubt hurt the industry to a degree. I hope they don't all decide to declare bankruptcy (after goldening their parachutes heavily) in a giant final cash grab.

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Tuesday, April 8, 2014 8:31 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

So after going up for most of the Obama Administration, the number of uninsured has finally gone down enough to pretty much equal the percentage of uninsured when he took office. Maybe in a while it'll get down to the 14.4% uninsured rate at the end of the Bush Administration.

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Tuesday, April 8, 2014 8:50 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Oh, yeah, right Geezer. The worst recession in--how many years?--had nothing to do with people no longer being able to afford health coverage. That's all Obama's fault, too; got it.

Gawd forbid you should wonder "where would all those millions be WITHOUT the ACA having been enacted?" Riiight...

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Tuesday, April 8, 2014 10:13 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
Oh, yeah, right Geezer. The worst recession in--how many years?--had nothing to do with people no longer being able to afford health coverage. That's all Obama's fault, too; got it.

Gawd forbid you should wonder "where would all those millions be WITHOUT the ACA having been enacted?" Riiight...

Just noting that the Administration is now pretty much back where they started in 2009. With a 2014 U.S. population of around 317 million, the 15.6% currently uninsured is around 49.5 million folks. Not quite time to declare victory yet.

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Tuesday, April 8, 2014 11:28 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

...and who, precisely, considers any of this "victory"? Who exactly has said the ACA is anything but an attempt to improve a bad situation, the best that could be gotten against concerted, universal Republican opposition, a flawed first step toward dealing with a serious problem?

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Tuesday, April 8, 2014 12:02 PM

STORYMARK

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Not quite time to declare victory yet.

There is a (not even remotely) subtle difference between declaring victory, and pointing out the lies of those trying to smear a program.

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Tuesday, April 8, 2014 9:58 PM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Not quite time to declare victory yet.

There is a (not even remotely) subtle difference between declaring victory, and pointing out the lies of those trying to smear a program.

So the percentage of uninsured now isn't 15.6%? The U.S. populations isn't 317 million? 317 million times .156 isn't 49,452,000?

And looking at the Gallup figures again, it's also interesting that the 2.4% drop in uninsured between the 3rd quarter of 2013 (18%) and the first quarter of 2014 (15.6%) would work out to 7.6 million folks. This is kind of strange considering that:

per various sources, 7.1 million signed up through the exchanges, Medicaid signed up an additional 3 million,
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/us/politics/health-law-helps-increas
e-medicaid-rolls-by-3-million.html?_r=0 and "millions" of additional under26ers are said to now be covered under their parents' policies. http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04/08/3767425/affordable-care-act-rea
ches-important.html?sp=/99/106/

So 7.1 plus 3 plus at least another 2 makes 12.1 million. Then why did the number of uninsured go down by only 7.6 million?

As hard as I know it is for you to believe, I'm happy that more people are getting insurance, But I don't think it's going as well as the Administration and its supporters would like us to believe.

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Tuesday, April 8, 2014 10:06 PM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
As hard as I know it is for you to believe, I'm happy that more people are getting insurance, But I don't think it's going as well as the Administration and its supporters would like us to believe.

I believe it Geeze. And I agree it won't be a panacea in any way, but a little bit better is better than no better at all IMO.

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