Gallup's ongoing survey of health insurance continues, with the
latest finding that 5 percent of Americans who were uninsured last year got coverage in 2014, and a little more than half of them—2.8 percent—purchased insurance through the Obamacare exchanges.
This is the first clear picture Gallup has been able to get in its monthly survey for insurance, because the final deadline for people to make their first payment in their new plans has passed, so now the newly insured population for private plans in 2014 is established. One of the more significant findings this round is that a lot of younger people bought plans.
[N]ewly insured Americans using the exchanges in the 18 to 29 age category are eight percentage points more prevalent than their percentage in the overall adult population, while representation of those 30 to 49 and 50 to 64 are five and four points higher, respectively.The high percentage of younger people can help offset another finding—these newly insured are less likely to report being in "very good" or "excellent" health than the general population. That's to be expected—it's a population that hasn't had insurance and hasn't had the opportunity for regular health care. The fact that so many of the newly insured are younger, though, will help encourage insurers to stick with the program, and help keep overall costs down.
Still, about 13 percent of the population remains uninsured. That percentage would decrease substantially if the states that have refused Medicaid expansion—nearly half of the states in the nation—would take the expansion.