For as consistently negative as the media was with regard to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) toward the tail-end of last year (and deservedly so), they've been just as consistently positive with regard to it in the past 2-3 weeks (with the exception being Fox News, of course...). Well, the good news continued to pour in yesterday with the release of the latest Gallup poll.
This very poll released the following results:
- "There has been a statistically significant and meaningfully large decline in the percentage of uninsured U.S. adults. The uninsured rate peaked at 18.0% in the third quarter of 2013, the highest rate measured since Gallup Healthways began tracking in 2008. The uninsured rate has been consistently trending downward since then, falling to 15.0% in March and further to 12.9% for April 1-14 polling. If the rate for the first half of April holds throughout the month, it will be the lowest monthly uninsured rate in 76 months of tracking."
- "The uninsured rate within all major racial and ethnic groups has declined since late 2013. However, not all groups are benefiting equally. The uninsured rate among Hispanics has dropped 4.4 percentage points to 37%, but this rate is still, by far, the highest across major racial and ethnic subgroups."
- "Half of newly insured Americans got their insurance through an exchange. Gallup asked Americans who said they got a new policy in 2014 whether they had a policy in 2013. Four percent of Americans did not have a policy previously and became insured for the first time this year. Of these Americans, about half (2.1%) say they purchased their plan through a federal or state exchange. The other half of newly insured Americans got insurance through other sources, such as an employer, Medicaid expansion, or private insurance companies.
- "The newly insured skew slightly younger, but not healthier. Young and healthy Americans are an important target in public outreach efforts for enrollment, because they essentially subsidize the cost of insurance for those who are older and less healthy. Frank Newport's analysis of Gallup Daily tracking data shows that newly insured Americans are fairly evenly distributed across 18- to 64-year-olds, but skew slightly to moderately toward younger Americans aged 18 to 29 years. Using a measure of self-reported health status, Gallup found that the the newly insured in 2014 mirror the health of the overall population, meaning they are neither sicker nor healthier. Not surprisingly, the newly insured also tend to have lower incomes and are more likely to be Democrats than the general U.S. adult population."
The first two of the listed results are excellent bits of news. No matter how certain media personalities want to slice it, the uninsured rate decreasing amongst all racial and ethnic groups, and decreasing in the general population from 18.0% to 12.9% (5.1%) in a fairly short amount of time is a very good thing for this country.
The latter two results aren't as obviously positive as the first two, but when looking at them a bit more closely, it's hard to see them in anything but a positive light. The reason for that is, remember how awful the healthcare.gov website was at first? For a while there, it may have been more accurate if the site had changed its URL to healthcare.glitch. So, for half of newly insured Americans to have attained their insurance through an exchange is quite an achievement. Also, for quite a while there, it appeared as if 18- to 29-year-olds were going to be far outnumbered by elders in purchasing new healthcare plans, which would have made things increasingly difficult when it comes to keeping healthcare options even semi-affordable. So, once again, for the newly insured to be "evenly distributed" across all age ranges, and to even "skew slightly" toward the younger individuals, is quite a pleasant surprise as well.
It's quite unfortunate that this seemingly constant stream of good news with regard to the Affordable Care Act is so partisan and divisive. This shouldn't be a liberal vs. conservative or a Republican vs. Democrat issue. This should be about creating a healthier United States of America - about covering people of all ages, regardless of their age, race, gender, or health history, about trying to prevent families from going bankrupt due to health problems and a lack of coverage, and about striving to continually improve our healthcare system, and with that, the health of the people at large. This law isn't perfect, but it's a step in the right direction, and politicians need to stop worrying about their next election and instead worry about doing the job they were elected by the people to do - to represent them and help improve their quality of lives.
http://thrive.gallup.com/2014/04/is-affordable-care-act-working.html?m=1
This very poll released the following results:
- "There has been a statistically significant and meaningfully large decline in the percentage of uninsured U.S. adults. The uninsured rate peaked at 18.0% in the third quarter of 2013, the highest rate measured since Gallup Healthways began tracking in 2008. The uninsured rate has been consistently trending downward since then, falling to 15.0% in March and further to 12.9% for April 1-14 polling. If the rate for the first half of April holds throughout the month, it will be the lowest monthly uninsured rate in 76 months of tracking."
- "The uninsured rate within all major racial and ethnic groups has declined since late 2013. However, not all groups are benefiting equally. The uninsured rate among Hispanics has dropped 4.4 percentage points to 37%, but this rate is still, by far, the highest across major racial and ethnic subgroups."
- "Half of newly insured Americans got their insurance through an exchange. Gallup asked Americans who said they got a new policy in 2014 whether they had a policy in 2013. Four percent of Americans did not have a policy previously and became insured for the first time this year. Of these Americans, about half (2.1%) say they purchased their plan through a federal or state exchange. The other half of newly insured Americans got insurance through other sources, such as an employer, Medicaid expansion, or private insurance companies.
- "The newly insured skew slightly younger, but not healthier. Young and healthy Americans are an important target in public outreach efforts for enrollment, because they essentially subsidize the cost of insurance for those who are older and less healthy. Frank Newport's analysis of Gallup Daily tracking data shows that newly insured Americans are fairly evenly distributed across 18- to 64-year-olds, but skew slightly to moderately toward younger Americans aged 18 to 29 years. Using a measure of self-reported health status, Gallup found that the the newly insured in 2014 mirror the health of the overall population, meaning they are neither sicker nor healthier. Not surprisingly, the newly insured also tend to have lower incomes and are more likely to be Democrats than the general U.S. adult population."
The first two of the listed results are excellent bits of news. No matter how certain media personalities want to slice it, the uninsured rate decreasing amongst all racial and ethnic groups, and decreasing in the general population from 18.0% to 12.9% (5.1%) in a fairly short amount of time is a very good thing for this country.
The latter two results aren't as obviously positive as the first two, but when looking at them a bit more closely, it's hard to see them in anything but a positive light. The reason for that is, remember how awful the healthcare.gov website was at first? For a while there, it may have been more accurate if the site had changed its URL to healthcare.glitch. So, for half of newly insured Americans to have attained their insurance through an exchange is quite an achievement. Also, for quite a while there, it appeared as if 18- to 29-year-olds were going to be far outnumbered by elders in purchasing new healthcare plans, which would have made things increasingly difficult when it comes to keeping healthcare options even semi-affordable. So, once again, for the newly insured to be "evenly distributed" across all age ranges, and to even "skew slightly" toward the younger individuals, is quite a pleasant surprise as well.
It's quite unfortunate that this seemingly constant stream of good news with regard to the Affordable Care Act is so partisan and divisive. This shouldn't be a liberal vs. conservative or a Republican vs. Democrat issue. This should be about creating a healthier United States of America - about covering people of all ages, regardless of their age, race, gender, or health history, about trying to prevent families from going bankrupt due to health problems and a lack of coverage, and about striving to continually improve our healthcare system, and with that, the health of the people at large. This law isn't perfect, but it's a step in the right direction, and politicians need to stop worrying about their next election and instead worry about doing the job they were elected by the people to do - to represent them and help improve their quality of lives.
http://thrive.gallup.com/2014/04/is-affordable-care-act-working.html?m=1
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