Backdrop for Obamacare repeal debate: The uninsured rate keeps falling. https://t.co/3HnMCoMRDw pic.twitter.com/dFLxK800jK
— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) February 14, 2017
All of the different surveys on insurance status measure slightly different things. But they all point in the same general trend. Uninsurance is consistently dropping, the private ESI based system has not changed much in either direction and most of the uptake is in government sponsored programs.
Keep this in mind as we watch Republicans try to take us back to 2008.
Open thread
JPL
Believe me, Tom Price will do what he can to destroy the ACA. He will not wait for congress to act.
randy khan
Just eyeballing it, that’s a 30%+ decrease in the uninsured rate since the ACA passed in 2010. That’s quite impressive.
MomSense
@randy khan:
And it’s without expansion of Medicaid in all 50 states.
randy khan
@MomSense:
Yeah. Imagine if the law had been implemented as planned without John Roberts mucking about in it.
schrodingers_cat
@JPL: Spreading cheer, I see. Good job!
cmorenc
I’d say it’s more like, Republicans try to take us back to 1878 (hint, hint – Civil War reconstruction ended in 1877, and the Gilded Age began).
JPL
@schrodingers_cat: lol He was my former rep and has already said as much.
Maybe Flynn will take down the entire administration, before that happens.
hovercraft
Lies, government sponsored lies, everyone knows that Obamacare made millions lose their insurance because they can no longer afford their premiums. Death panels are killing millions. That chart is propaganda, but fear not, the new administration will show you the real numbers, just wait until you see the numbers for 2017, you will see how many people are really losing their insurance, and how sharply premiums are rising. It will have absolutely nothing to do with any repeal or sabotage, it will simply be the “real” numbers at last.
Makes you wonder, is the unemployment rate suddenly going to spike to 42%, since that’s the “real” number?
MomSense
@randy khan:
Not hard for me to imagine because I live in a Medicaid gap state and bump into this problem all the time. I honestly believe that they did this so people would think ObamaCare abandoned them.
It creates a huge nightmare at enrollment time and means a lot of people go uninsured. It’s a huge problem for our rural hospitals, too.
I could rant about it all day but I see people go without treatment for their diabetes and end up with amputations. All completely avoidable.
ArchTeryx
For the first time since the election of our current pResident Shitgibbon, I have hope that I won’t be tossed off lifesaving care this year. Anything that buys me time is a blessing. That it is Republicans In Disarray is a bonus.
JustRuss
Wait, you’re saying actually doing something is better then praying to the Free Market and hoping for the best? Unpossible!!!!!
rikyrah
Which is why I despise them more and more – those who want to take us back to the bad old days.
JGabriel
David, the percentages listed on the right hand of the chart for 2016 add up to 101.6%.
Is there an error somewhere? it’s seem kind of large for a rounding error, especially since the numbers are already extended to the first decimal place. That means a rounding error shouldn’t be any bigger than 0.2-0.3%
Raoul
@JGabriel: Huh. We do need solid data, though overall there is no doubt that this is the best year in a loooooong time for total % of the population that is uninsured.
I just hope the shit hitting the Republican WH fan turns the whole party filthy, and that they’re so distracted they can’t get a whole lot of legislating done. Price will be a nightmare, everyone in the new admin is/will be. He can still do serious damage. Ugh.
Davis X. Machina
@MomSense: No revolution without martyrs. ¡Viva LePage¡
Zinsky
Well, of course Obamacare was fucked up – it was a Republican idea to begin with! We need universal, single-payer health insurance. Full. Stop. Democrats and progressives should push this relentlessly from now until it is passed, just like the Republican vermin push tax cuts until they get ’em!