Dive Brief:
- A new Gallup poll suggests that the level of U.S. residents without health insurance has dropped slightly as coverage expansion gets underway under the ACA.
- The Gallup study found that the uninsured rate for U.S. adults dropped by 1.2% in January to 16.1%. The biggest change was for unemployed people, a drop of 6.7%.
- The survey, which reached out to 9,000 people, found no noticeable change among young adults ages 18 to 34.
Dive Insight:
These numbers are a mixed blessing for the Obama administration. On the one hand, 2 to 3 million formerly uninsured people are now insured. On the other hand, with 16.1% of Americans still uninsured, and virtually no change in the numbers of young people signing up for the plans, the administration still faces numerous challenges in making a deeper impact on the problem of helping the uninsured. Surveys like this remind us that getting more Americans insured is likely to be a long, painful process.