While data released by the U.S. Census Bureau today is a good news, not-so-good news situation, according to analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Obamacare contributed to the largest decline in the number of uninsured Americans since 1999.
The main positive news in today’s report is the fall in the share of Americans who are uninsured, from 16.3 percent in 2010 to 15.7 percent in 2011, the largest annual improvement since 1999. That improvement was driven in part by gains in coverage among young adults, which appear largely due to a provision of the health reform law allowing them to remain on their parent’s health plan until they reach age 26. Forty percent of the decline in the number of uninsured people came among individuals aged 19-25. Some 539,000 fewer 19-25-year-olds were uninsured in 2011 than in 2010.
Is it working fast enough? Maybe not, but after decades of promises to do something about the number of uninsured Americans, the Obama administration is actually making some headway.
Poverty also remained flat in 2011 after rising the previous three years in a row according to the report.