How many without health insurance

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Single Accounts Corporate Solutions Universities. In the first half of , approximately The share of Americans without health insurance was steadily decreasing until , but has been increasing since The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of caused this change, because it repealed the individual mandate, which penalized individuals for failing to maintain health coverage.

In spite of its success in providing more Americans with health insurance, ACA has had an almost equal number of proponents and opponents since its introduction, though the share of Americans in favor of it has risen since mid Persistent disparity among ethnic groups The number of uninsured people is higher in certain demographic groups.

For instance, Hispanics continue to be the ethnic group with the highest rate of uninsured people , even after ACA. Meanwhile the share of uninsured white people is still lower than the national average. Loading statistic Show source. Download for free You need to log in to download this statistic Register for free Already a member? Log in. Show detailed source information? Register for free Already a member?

Number of persons under age 65 uninsured at the time of interview: Percent of persons under age 65 with private insurance at time of interview: Percent of persons under age 65 with public insurance at time of interview: Bureau of the Census external icon.

Most people who are uninsured are nonelderly adults and in working families. Families with low incomes are more likely to be uninsured. In general, people of color are more likely to be uninsured than White people. Reflecting geographic variation in income and the availability of public coverage, people who live in the South or West are more likely to be uninsured. Most who are uninsured have been without coverage for long periods of time. See Appendix Table B for detailed data on characteristics of the uninsured population.

Figure 4: Characteristics of the Nonelderly Uninsured, Most of the nonelderly in the U. Medicaid covers many low-income individuals; however, Medicaid eligibility for adults remains limited in some states.

Additionally, renewal and other policies that make it harder for people to maintain Medicaid likely contributed to Medicaid enrollment declines.

While financial assistance for Marketplace coverage is available for many moderate-income people, few people can afford to purchase private coverage without financial assistance. Some people who are eligible for coverage under the ACA may not know they can get help and others may still find the cost of coverage prohibitive. Health insurance makes a difference in whether and when people get necessary medical care, where they get their care, and ultimately, how healthy they are.

Uninsured adults are far more likely than those with insurance to postpone health care or forgo it altogether. The consequences can be severe, particularly when preventable conditions or chronic diseases go undetected.

This number is expected to increase significantly due to the changing mindset of the population. Based on this data, numerous researchers are trying to figure out the main factors which led to this abrupt decrease in insurance rates in the US. We will briefly discuss some of the main factors, later on, to facilitate a better understanding of why so many people are now going without health insurance. This aspect must be discussed, since uninsured individuals are at higher risk of medical complications, alongside debt accumulation.

Another reason for the expected rise in those seeking health insurance is the Affordable Care Act that has made it possible for many otherwise uninsured people to obtain Medicaid, and also marketplace coverage. Considering the number of uninsured Americans , most of those who are uninsured have one person in the family who is a worker. This also includes families that have low income who are mostly uninsured. The numbers reflect the fact that public coverage in many states is not easily available.

This is where adults are mostly uninsured as compared to children. Further studies have revealed that Black Americans and Hispanics are likely to be uninsured. When considering uninsured health care stats, there is a huge discrepancy compared to the US, where millions of people are having difficulty paying their yearly premiums. Despite the high prices, numerous insurance programs do not even cover all forms of medical exams and treatment plans, thus requiring additional payment from insured citizens.

According to these statistics, we can easily conclude that the health insurance system in the US is currently flawed, and is in need of additional reform to ensure that all people have access to quality healthcare, despite their financial status. The table below is meant to better describe the evolution of insurance rates in the US.

Before getting to it, it is important for us to briefly explain the paradox that the industry is dealing with. Namely, the increase of uninsured rates is quite surprising, judging how the US economy is not dealing with any hardships that would otherwise impact insurance premiums and the uninsured rate per year.

However, rates indicate an increase in recent rates for uninsured individuals. As you can see from the table, the percentage of Americans without insurance has varied quite a lot during the past 10 years.

Uninsured rates seem to be at their highest between and , whereas an abrupt decrease was spotted in , as a result of Obamacare. The rate continued to drop until when an increase was spotted. The recent increase from shows that we are indeed seeing a rise in the growth rate in terms of people living without health insurance.

When it comes to deaths due to lack of healthcare, according to The Institute of Medicine IOM an average of 18, Americans aged between 25 and 64 years die annually due to the lack of health insurance. The high cost of insurance is the reason for many people today not to buy health insurance despite the creation of the ACA.

The uninsured rate among children was 5. Non-seniors were more likely to have difficulties paying for health coverage as compared to those who had private insurance coverage. Medical bills can put great strain on the uninsured and threaten their financial well-being. As such, the most recent and most significant policy change was made in when President Obama fought to get the Affordable Care Act signed into law. The official version of the act is pages long — hence why we will try to offer a brief overview of the law, outlining its main goals, how it plans to achieve them, while also offering several Obamacare statistics.

Before anything else, it is important to keep in mind that Obamacare was incredibly successful in increasing the rates of insured Americans and it has managed to achieve such an impact within only a few years.

Consequently, we can all conclude that healthcare access was quite difficult for Americans with average and below-average wages, and especially for those living below the federal poverty line. Similarly, the sheer number of Americans that were uninsured dropped considerably since the implementation of this act. However, as we will see later on, the new Trump administration does not believe in the benefits offered by Obamacare and is, therefore, doing its best to dismantle the system and return to traditional healthcare regulations.

It is believed that this initiative is a direct reason why the rates of uninsured Americans have increased over the last couple of years. So far, President Trump has not managed to stop the program in its entirety, yet several changes have already been implemented.

These include, but are not limited to:. Obamacare necessitates that all US residents must have some form of health insurance — failure to do so would lead to a penalty.