Uninsured rate in the U.S. stops shrinking in ’16

Five years of progress reducing the number of Americans without health insurance has come to a halt, according to a government report out Tuesday, showing the stakes in the Republican drive to roll back the Affordable Care Act.

The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 28.6 million people in the U.S. were uninsured in 2016, unchanged from 2015. It was the first year since passage of the healthcare overhaul in 2010 that the number of uninsured did not budge.

The uninsured rate for 2016 was 9%, an insignificant difference from 9.1% the previous year. When then-President Obama signed the ACA in 2010, the uninsured rate had been 16%.

Tuesday’s report suggests that the ACA, also known as Obamacare, was running low on gas in Obama’s final year as president. Premiums for private insurance were about to jump, and 19 states continued to refuse the law’s Medicaid expansion. Now, the number of uninsured could start climbing again under policies being considered by President Trump and congressional Republicans.

The politically unpopular GOP bill passed narrowly by the House would limit Medicaid financing and curtail subsidies for many consumers buying their own private policies. The Republican bill also would repeal the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance or risk fines, a much-disliked nudge to get healthy people covered.

The legislation would lead to an estimated increase of 24 million uninsured people within 10 years, according to congressional analysts. Under the Affordable Care Act, there are 20 million fewer uninsured since 2010.

The new numbers come from the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey, which is considered an authoritative source and publishes findings earlier than the Census Bureau. Estimates for 2016 were based on data for nearly 97,500 people.