The uninsured rate has dropped by one third, or 15.8 million people since 2013,
according to new information from the Obama administration.
In the first three months of this year, the National Center for Health Statistics said, 29 million people were uninsured. That was seven million fewer than the average for 2014, after a reduction of 8.8 million from 2013 to 2014. […]
In a report on its findings, the center said that the proportion of the population without insurance had declined by five percentage points, to 9.2 percent, in the first quarter of this year, from 14.4 percent in 2013.
Among people age 18 to 64, the number who were uninsured dropped by about one-third, to 25.5 million, in the first quarter of this year, from 39.6 million in 2013. And among children under 18, the number of uninsured declined to 3.4 million this year, from 4.8 million in 2013.
Repeal that, Republicans.
The biggest gains were for the poor and near poor. Nearly 40 percent of poor people lacked insurance in 2013 and that has dropped to 28 percent. Among those hovering just above the poverty line the rate dropped from 38.5 percent in 2013 to 23.8 percent. Had all the states expanded Medicaid, those numbers would be better. In states with the expansion, "10.6 percent of people age 18 to 64 were uninsured in the first quarter of this year, down from 18.4 percent in 2013." But in states without it, the uninsured rate is more than six points higher, at 16.8 percent now, down from 22.7 percent in 2013.
Speaking of states that didn't expand Medicaid, Texas is number one. Meaning that it's first at being worst. It's the only state in the country that has more than 20 percent of the population uninsured. Before Obamacare was implemented, 27 percent of Texans were uninsured. Now just under 21 percent are. Its neighbor, Arkansas, which also had more than 20 percent uninsured in 2013, now just has nine percent lacking insurance. Arkansas, of course, took the Medicaid expansion dollars.