Health Insurance Coverage

Posted on February 25, 2015 by admin

• Health law drives down U.S. rate of uninsured adults, survey finds, By Noam N. Levey, February 24, 2015, Los Angeles Times: “America’s uninsured rate plummeted last year, with the improvement driven by states that have fully implemented the Affordable Care Act, a new nationwide Gallup survey indicates.  Led by Arkansas and Kentucky, which both had double-digit declines, seven states saw the percentage of adults without insurance fall by more than 5 percentage points between 2013 and 2014…”
• Survey: Uninsured rate hit new low in 2014, By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar (AP), February 24, 2015, ABC News: “Even as it faces another Supreme Court challenge, President Barack Obama’s health care law has steadily reduced the number of uninsured Americans, according to an extensive survey released Tuesday.  The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index found that the share of adults without health insurance dropped to its lowest level in seven years in 2014 as Obama’s overhaul took full effect.  The trend appears likely to continue, since 55 percent of those who remained uninsured told the pollster they plan to get coverage rather than face rising tax penalties…”
• The stark North-South divide in health insurance, By Aimee Picchi, February 24, 2015, CBS News: “When it comes to health care coverage, America is becoming a land of geographically based haves and have-nots.  States with the lowest uninsured rates are clustered in the Northeast and upper Midwest, while those with the highest rates of uninsured Americans are mostly inSouthern states such as Georgia and Louisiana, according to a new study from Gallup. One reason is that many Southern states opted out of expanding Medicaid coverage under Obamacare…”
• Medicaid enrollment surges across the U.S., By Kimberly Leonard, February 24, 2015, US News and World Report: “Much of the focus of the health care law in recent months has centered on whether the government could get millions of people to sign up for private health insurance through federal or state exchanges. But the Affordable Care Act also expands health insurance for Americans with the lowest incomes – by giving them greater access to public coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program…”
• Congress is told ruling against health law would impact poor, By Robert Pear, February 24, 2015, New York Times: “The Obama administration told Congress on Tuesday that it had no plans to help low- and moderate-income people if theSupreme Court ruled against the administration and cut off health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans.  Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, said a court decision against the administration would do “massive damage” that could not be undone by executive action.