After years of declining health care uninsured rates, the CDC is reporting that for the second year in a row, that the number of Americans without health care is rising. The CDC specifically mentions the GOP Tax Scam blowing up the ACA’s individual mandate as a contributing factor.
As reported by USA Today, this means that about 30.4 million Americans did not have health insurance in 2018, up from 29.3 million in 2017. So that’s about 1.1 million more Americans lost insurance coverage last year.
Clearly, the Trump administration’s efforts to challenge and change requirements are partly the cause of some Americans going without coverage. Analysts backed this up.
A CBO analysis from last month estimated a higher amount but confirms the CDC report that we’re definitely moving in the wrong direction—after years of declining uninsured rates under a Democratic President.
This Gallup health care survey from January also confirms that uninsured rates have been rising since Donald Trump’s election. That makes three reports since the beginning of the year confirming that Trumpcare is kicking in and it’s bad.
As Dan Witters explains at Gallup, “While still below the 18% high point recorded before implementation of the Affordable Care Act's individual health insurance mandate in 2014, today's level is the highest in more than four years, and well above the low point of 10.9% reached in 2016.”
Wow.
Witters continues, “The 2.8-percentage-point increase since that low represents a net increase of about seven million adults without health insurance.”
This Gallup graphic of Trump’s destruction of our health care system is stunning.
After doing everything in its power to cripple the ACA and the results are evident in all these reports, the Trump administration is arguing in court the entire health care law should be overturned. This would leave millions more Americans without care and pre-existing conditions protections, no annual or lifetime limits, etc.
This is the dark health care vision the Republican Party has in store for America and you can be certain that from now—until Election Day 2020, they will change the subject and avoid talking about health care. Make sure you remind voters of their Trumpcare plan every opportunity you get.