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Thursday, January 24th, 2019

U.S. Uninsured Rate Rises to Four-Year High

Author:     DAN WITTERS
Source:     The Gallup Organization
Publication Date:     JANUARY 23, 2019
 Link: U.S. Uninsured Rate Rises to Four-Year High
Stephan:   Every time I hear or read a discussion about universal healthcare inevitably the Republican in the debate raises the cost issue saying basically, "It's too expensive, we can't afford it." Whenever you heard someone talk like this you know you are hearing either a liar or a moron -- or a lying moron. Every other developed nation in the Western world has universal healthcare and every single one of them -- every single one -- has better-rated healthcare than American does. And everyone of those nations pays a smaller fraction of their GDP than does the United States. In reality, we have the worst-rated healthcare amongst those developed nations; we rank 37th and we pay more of our GDP, 17.6% specifically. We also have higher taxation rates. The entire discussion about healthcare is really about one thing. Protecting the profits of the healthcare industry. It has nothing -- nothing -- to do with wellbeing. And we are getting worse.

Nationwide, the uninsured rate climbed from 10.9% in the third and fourth quarters of 2016 to 12.2% by the final quarter of 2017; it has risen steadily each quarter since that time. Since Gallup’s measurement began in 2008, the national uninsured rate reached its highest point in the third quarter of 2013 at 18.0%, and thus, the current rate of 13.7% — although it continues a rising trend — remains well below the peak level.

These data, collected as part of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, are based on Americans’ answers to the question, “Do you have health insurance coverage?” Sample sizes of randomly selected adults in 2018 were around 28,000 per quarter.

The ACA marketplace exchanges opened on Oct. 1, 2013, and most new insurance plans purchased during the last quarter of that year began their coverage on Jan. 1, 2014. Medicaid expansion among 24 states (and the District of Columbia) also began at the beginning of 2014, with 12 more states expanding Medicaid since that time. Expanded Medicaid coverage as a part of the ACA broadens the number […]

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