Obamacare Has Reduced The % Of Uninsured To 10.8%

The Republicans, and their current presidential candidate (Donald Trump), continue to claim that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has been a failure. As the chart above shows, that claim is ludicrous.

Before Obamacare went into effect in 2014, about 17.3% of all Americans had no health insurance -- and many more had insurance plans that were grossly inadequate. Now all insurance plans must have a level of coverage that protects the insured, and the number of uninsured Americans has dropped to 10.8% in 2016. That means about 20 million Americans have insurance now over the number who had it in 2013. Those 20 million now have access to life-saving preventive care.

Obviously, Obamacare has been a big success. However, that does not mean it is perfect. That 10.8% who still don't have health insurance is unacceptable. In the richest country in the world -- the country that spends more on health care per capita than any other nation -- no citizen should be without health insurance. No other developed nation has over 10% of its population without health coverage. They cover all their citizens, and there's no reason why the United States shouldn't do the same.

No reason except that the Republicans refuse to recognize adequate health care as a right of all citizens. They have tried over 50 times to repeal Obamacare, without proposing any sensible plan to replace it -- and their presidential candidate has promised to repeal Obamacare if elected. Their actions have shown that they simply don't care about the health of Americans. That's demonstrated in the Republican-controlled states that still refuse to expand Medicaid (an action that would reduce the number of uninsured significantly below the current 10.8%).

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats want to improve Obamacare. They want to cover all Americans with health care, while reducing the cost of drugs and medical care. They know that Obamacare was just the first step toward better health care for Americans.

This is just one more reason why Democrats must be elected up and down the ballot in the coming election.

The above chart is from a recently released Gallup Poll -- done between January 2008 and July 2016 of a random national sample of 2,415,499 adults, with a margin of error of only 0.08 points.