The good news is more Americans are covered, according to Gallup:
President Obama’s health law has led to an even greater increase in health coverage than previously estimated, according to new Gallup survey data, which suggests that about 12 million previously uninsured Americans have gained coverage since last fall.
That is millions more than Gallup found in March and suggests that as many as 4 million people have signed up for some kind of insurance in the last several weeks as the first enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act drew to a close.
Just 12.9% of adults nationally lacked coverage in the first half of April, initial data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index indicate. That’s the lowest rate since the survey began in 2008.
Eighteen percent were uninsured in the third quarter of 2013, just before Americans could start shopping for coverage on the new online marketplaces created by the law.
The bad news is that “covered” includes millions of new Medicaid recipients, who are better described as “welfare recipients” than “insured.” Gallup also doesn’t reveal the dropout rate or the percentage of Young Invincibles needed to make the exchanges viable. That giant sucking sound you hear is money swirling around Washington on its way down the drain.
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