U.S. Uninsured Rate Drops To Record Low
The health law's health insurance coverage expansions are in large part credited with driving this change.
The Wall Street Journal:
Number Of Uninsured In U.S. Dropped Below 10% For First Time In 2015
About 9.1% of people in the U.S., or around 28.6 million, were uninsured in 2015 according to federal statistics released Tuesday. The Obama administration is celebrating the figures—which largely matched an earlier release by the agency for the first half of last year—as proof of the impact of the Affordable Care Act, which overhauled the insurance system, created new subsidies for people to get private coverage and boosted funding for states to expand the Medicaid program that offers near free-care to the lowest-income Americans. (Radnofsky, 5/17)
CNBC:
Obamacare Brings Record Low For US Health Uninsured Rate
It was the first time the percentage of people without some form of health coverage has gone into single digits, and a 2.4 percentage point drop from 2014. The number of people uninsured in 2015 was 28.6 million, which was 7.4 million fewer than 2014, according to the CDC. (Mangan, 5/17)
Meanwhile, Highmark is suing the federal government over risk-corridor money it says it is owed under the Affordable Care Act -
The Wall Street Journal:
Highmark Sues U.S. Over Affordable Care Act
Major insurer Highmark Inc. is suing the federal government, arguing it is owed money under the Affordable Care Act, a move that opens yet another front in the continuing legal battles over the 2010 health law. Highmark, the insurance arm of Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Highmark Health, said in the suit that the U.S. failed to live up to obligations to pay the insurer nearly $223 million owed under an ACA program known as “risk corridors,” which aimed to limit the financial risks borne by insurers entering the new health-law markets. The suit claims “violations of the mandatory risk-corridor payment obligations prescribed” in the health law. (Wilde Mathews, 5/17)
