One of the successes of the federal health care reform law is highlighted by new survey data released on Friday (July 19). The new Gallup data indicates a decline of almost one fifth over the last several years in the number of young adults who are uninsured, thanks to the provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowing young adults under age 26 to stay on their parents’ insurance plans. That’s a remarkable success when one considers that employer sponsored coverage of adults has continued to decline, which has been sharply increasing the percentage of adults 26 and older who are uninsured.
The portion of 18- to 25-year-olds who are uninsured peaked at 28.7% in 2009, but began to drop sharply at the end of 2010 when the ACA measure took effect. It is now just 23.7%. On the other hand, for older adults, ages 26 to 64, the uninsured rate has continued to grow. It was around 15% during most of 2008, had climbed to 18% by the beginning of 2010, and now stands at 19.6%. The new survey results, which are from the second quarter of this year, underscore the need for the additional ACA measures that will take effect in 2014 (i.e., expansion of Medicaid for low-income adults, an establishment of the new health insurance Marketplace with sliding scale subsidies). Employer-based health insurance has been declining fairly steadily since 2009, and the 43.3% of adults who said they get their health insurance from an employer is the lowest quarterly average that Gallup has recorded.
Overall, the new survey data show that an average of 17.2% of U.S. adults were uninsured in the second quarter of 2013, which is similar to levels found in 2011 and 2012.
Jon Peacock
