Percentage of uninsured Texans sinks
Though state is still at the top of the list, advocates laud health care law’s effects
The percentage of Texans without insurance has dropped dramatically since the launch of the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. In 2015, the uninsured rate fell to 16.8 percent.
While the state continues to lead the nation in the rate of people who are not covered, advocates for the health care law who have watched its implementation say the headway is undeniable. Prior to the law’s passage in 2010, the Texas rate of uninsured hovered around 25 percent, or one in four.
“This is indeed significant progress,” said Elena Marks, president and CEO of Episcopal health Foundation in Houston. She is co-author of a separate
series of ACA tracking reports issued through Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Nationally, the rate of uninsured fell to a historic low of 9.1 percent last year, the National Health Interview Survey released Tuesday found. That translates to about 7.4 million people gaining coverage last year on top of the 8.8 million who signed up in 2014. It is the first time the uninsured rate has slid into the single digits.
In 2010, the national rate of uninsured was 16 percent.
“The historically low rate of uninsured in America reflects people’s desires for health coverage. Americans like having access to health care,” said Ken Janda, president and CEO of Community Health Choice, a nonprofit managed-care organization serving Harris and 19 other Texas counties.
In another significant finding, the report showed the rate of uninsured children under 17 dropped a full percentage point nationally, to 4.5 percent.
Among uninsured Hispanics, the stubbornly high national rate showed the largest drop, falling to 27 percent in 2015 from 40.6 percent in 2013.
Still problematic are the number of young adults who shun coverage. They are more than twice as likely as adults ages 45 to 64 to be uninsured.
The 25- to 34-year-old age group has long been seen as a key demographic to the success of the exchange markets. They tend to be healthier and use fewer health care dollars, which counteracts the expense of others in insurance risk pools.
The Obama administration cheered Tuesday’s report, but opponents of the health care law also known as Obamacare continue to vow to dismantle it. Critics say it is too expensive and does too little.
Another hot-button political topic in health care continues to be Medicaid expansion, which Texas Republicans have said will not happen on their watch.
Part of the underpinnings of the Affordable Care Act was that states would expand Medicaid programs to help cover the poor and near-poor while subsidies would help others afford premiums.
The CDC study shows that last year adults in states that expanded Medicaid were less likely to be uninsured. In those states, the percentage of uninsured decreased to 9.8 in 2015 from 18.4 percent two years earlier. By contrast, the uninsured rate in states like Texas that chose not to expand the program decreased to 17.5 percent last year from 22.7 percent in 2013.
Janda, while pleased with some parts of the report, remains troubled that too many remain without coverage.
“We still lead the nation in uninsured citizens, meaning millions of lives are at risk,” he said. “Texas could cover more lives, and we should.”