11 Million Americans Gain Insurance Since Passage of ACA
Since President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law 5 years ago, the number of insured Americans has dropped by more than 11 million to the lowest level in 15 years, according to new statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Health Statistics.
As of October 1, 2014, an estimated 37 million Americans were uninured. In 2010, more than 48 million Americans lacked insurance coverage. An Associated Press (AP) review of the statistics revealed the most dramatic shift took place between 2013 and 2014 when a reported 7.6 million Americans gained insurance coverage. The upswing in the number of insured Americans coincided with the major coverage expansion mandated by the ACA, the article explained.
Such an increase is “much bigger than can possibly be explained by the economy,” Larry Levitt, of the Kaiser Family Foundation, told the AP. "The vast majority has to be due to the [ACA].” Meanwhile, the White House maintains that the increase in insured Americans is even greater than this week’s CDC statistics suggest. Officials there cited a Department of Health & Human Services estimate of some 16 million Americans gaining insur- ance as of the beginning March, the AP reported, a period that included the second open enrollment session. —Jolynn Tumolo
