The proportion of people without health insurance in the United States reached a minimum in early 2022, at 8% of the population, the Joe Biden government greeted this Tuesday. The rate of people without insurance began to fall sharply after the entry into force in 2014 of the “Affordable Care Act”, an ambitious health insurance reform better known as “Obamacare”, the flagship law of Barack Obama.
However, between 2018 and 2019, the uninsured curve spiked, before falling again. In total, “5.2 million people have gained coverage since 2020, which coincides with the start of the Biden-Harris administration in January 2021,” the Health Ministry said in a statement. This figure includes 4.1 million adults and 1 million children, according to the report on which the Government is based, prepared from a survey carried out each year among households.
“Make this principle a reality”
However, around 26 million people remain today without health coverage in the country. “No one should be afraid of not being able to pay their doctor, or having to choose between paying their rent and getting their medicine,” the Democratic president said in a statement. “Today we are closer than ever to making this principle a reality,” he said.
He considered that the recent advances are linked in particular to the improvements contained in the American Rescue Plan, the emergency aid plan adopted at the beginning of his mandate, which contained measures that facilitated access to health insurance through subsidies to help families to pay for medical coverage. “Pretty good huh Barack Obama?” Joe Biden tweeted on Tuesday welcoming the news.
“Absolutely, Joe,” the former Democratic president responded, still on Twitter. The two men advocated for the passage in Congress of the “Inflation Reduction Act,” a law largely focused on clean energy and the climate, but which also contains measures to guarantee the subsidies granted for medical coverage and lower drug prices.
Source: BFM TV
