2 million Americans lost insurance this year — even with ObamaCare
A chief criticism of the GOP's various plans to repeal and replace ObamaCare is how many Americans lawmakers could leave unwillingly uninsured — but a new survey finds uninsurance rates are edging up even under ObamaCare.
Results of the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index were released Monday, showing some 2 million U.S. adults lost insurance coverage this year alone. The uninsurance rate grew from 10.9 percent at the end of 2016 to 11.7 percent in the second quarter of 2017, a change analysts determined is statistically significant despite its small size. This decline comes after five years of coverage increases stalled within the last 12 months.
Lack of coverage primarily increased among young adults and those who buy their insurance in the ObamaCare marketplaces instead of receiving an employer plan, The Associated Press reports. A now-familiar litany of problems is in play: Premiums are spiking ever upward and many insurance markets offer consumers little to no choice of what plan to purchase.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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