Obamacare Has Significantly Reduced The Number Of People With No Health Insurance

This is a slightly different way to look at the effectiveness of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in reducing the number of Americans without health insurance. It is the Gallup Poll, which has been asking respondents on a quarterly basis heather they have insurance or not -- with the last survey being taken throughout the month of April this year. That survey questioned a random national sample of 14,708 adults last month -- and with such a large sample, the survey has a margin of error of only 1 point.

Note that in the third quarter of 2013, about 18% of the population did not have health insurance. By last month, that figure had been reduced to about 13.4% -- a drop of 4.6%. With a current population of just over 317 million people, that means the number of people without health insurance has been reduced from about 57 million to around 42 million -- a drop of about 15 million people. That's not nearly enough (since we would like to see everyone covered by health insurance), but it's certainly a good start.

There were significant drops among all races/ethnicities, and among all income levels. But it could have been much better, if all states had cooperated. There are still 25.2% of those who make $36,000 or less who don't have health insurance (or a little more than one out of every four). That number is way too high, and can be directly attributed to the half of all states that refused to expand Medicaid (because they were controlled by Republicans who don't believe people have a right to decent health care). If the Republican-controlled states had expanded Medicaid, that 13.4% of Americans without health insurance could have already been much lower.

Obamacare is working. It is covering more Americans with insurance, and it is improving the quality and cost of that health insurance. It would work even better though if the Republicans would cooperate, and stop trying to obstruct or destroy the system.