Nearly 20 Million More People Have Health Insurance Thanks to Obamacare

In 2017 the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released a report, in which they tracked insurance coverage for people across the country over the past two decades. According the report, the number of uninsured Americans dropped by 20 million since 2010 before the policy was enacted. The NCHS also found that the uninsured rate of people aged 18-64 decreased from 16 percent in 2010 to 9 percent in 2016.

Low-income people are among those that stand to gain the most from Obamacare coverage. In the same report, the NCHS surveyed people between the ages of 18-64 who identified as near-poor, poor, and not-poor and discovered that the uninsured rate decreased most dramatically for poor people and near-poor people. In 2010, more than 40 percent of people who identified as poor or near-poor were uninsured compared to 26.2 and 23.2 percent, respectively, in 2016.

The ACA isn’t without its flaws, but the statistics show an improvement in U.S. public health. Nevertheless, President Trump has promised to repeal Obamacare, and his supporters— many of whom are recipients of Obamacare— have rallied behind his mission to dismantle it. Congress has made multiple attempts to replace the ACA with alternatives that could put as many as 51 million people at risk for losing coverage. Despite attempts to undercut open enrollment periods, 6.4 million Americans have signed up for coverage under the ACA in the 2017 open enrollment period so far.

The best way to fight federal attempts to sabotage open enrollment is to find out if you qualify for coverage, and enroll if you do . Then, it's all about getting the word out about open enrollment to your friends and family. Get America Covered makes this easy , with shareable social graphics, easy to understand fact sheets, and an email list serve.