How Many of Obamacare’s New Enrollees Were Uninsured Last Year? Why It Doesn’t Matter

Charles Gaba, the enrollment guru who has been tracking Obamacare sign-ups since October, now estimates that by April 15, some 17 million Americans will have purchased their own insurance policies either in the Obamacare Exchanges (8 million) or off-Exchange (9 million) But how many of them were uninsured and how many were simply replacing policies that Obamacare had forced insurers to cancel?  This is the question conservatives ask.  After all they argue, if most of these folks already had coverage, we have just wasted a great deal of time and money moving them from a policy they chose to one that President Obama prefers. There are two answers to their question. The first is that while we don’t have an exact number as to how many of the new enrollees were uninsured, we do know that, thanks to Obamcare,  the percent of Americans who are “going naked” has declined. New Gallup data shows that the uninsured rate fell from 18.1% in the third quarter of 2013 to 15.6% in the first quarter of 2014. That said, Gaba offers a second, even better, answer: “It doesn’t really matter.”  I agree. As he explains: “It doesn’t matter because every one of those new policies–whether on-exchange or off-exchange; whether it went to someone who didn’t have insurance before, someone who had their old policy cancelled or went to someone who voluntarily made the switch to a new one…which  . . is a LOT of people, by the way...
Source: Health Beat - Category: American Health Authors: Tags: Affordable Care Act Charles Gaba enrolling in Obamacare how many were uninsured underinsured Source Type: blogs