Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Ranks Of Uninsured Rose Again In 2019, Before Pandemic Even Hit
Politico: More Americans Lacked Health Insurance Last Year — Even Before Pandemic Hit, Census Reports
The ranks of the nation’s uninsured continued to grow last year, even before the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic that’s devastated the economy, new federal data show. Nearly 30 million Americans went without health coverage at some point in 2019, up by roughly 1 million from the previous year, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data. The figures show continued losses in health insurance under the Trump administration, slightly eroding coverage gains made following passage of Obamacare a decade ago. (Luthi, 9/15)
AP: While Income In The US Rose In 2019, So Did The Uninsured
In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit and the U.S. economy crashed, median household income was the highest ever on record, but the number of U.S. residents without health insurance also increased, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Median household income in 2019 was $68,703, an increase of 6.8% from the previous year. That figure surpassed past boom-before-the bust years in 2007, when it was $62,090 in 2019 dollars and in 1999, when it was $62,641 in 2019 dollars, according to the Census Bureau. The poverty rate in 2019 was 10.5%, a decrease from 11.8% in 2018. It was the fifth consecutive annual decline in the national poverty rate, according to the Census Bureau. (Schneider, 9/15)
The Hill: Uninsured Americans Increased Even Before Pandemic, Census Bureau Finds
The number of uninsured Americans has been increasing for the past three years, after seeing a massive decline in the wake of the passage of the Affordable Care Act. According to the report, there has been an increase of more than 2 million uninsured people since 2016. The number of uninsured people decreased by 20 million after the law was passed in 2010. (Weixel, 9/15)
The Washington Post: More Americans Went Without Health Insurance Coverage Before Coronavirus Pandemic And Recession
Though the reasons are sharply debated, the new data signifies that the first three years of President Trump’s tenure were a period of contracting health insurance coverage. The decreases reversed gains that began near the end of the Great Recession and accelerated during early years of expanded access to health plans and Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act — the sprawling law that was a signature domestic achievement of President Barack Obama and has been derided by Republicans, including Trump, ever since. (Goldstein and Siegel, 9/15)
