Trumpcare’s first year and 3.2 million have become uninsured.
3.2 million more Americans without health care. That’s Trumpcare for you.
Remember how Donald Trump promised “everybody” would have health care:
“I’m going to take care of everybody.”
According to Gallup, who has tracked the uninsured rate for years, the uninsured rate jumped big time in 2017. This is a reversal of a nearly 3 year constant decline in the uninsured rate and It directly coincides with Trumpcare’s first full year.
The percentage of U.S. adults without health insurance was essentially unchanged in the fourth quarter of 2017, at 12.2%, but it is up 1.3 percentage points from the record low of 10.9% found in the last quarter of 2016. The 1.3-point increase in the uninsured rate during 2017 is the largest single-year increase Gallup and Sharecare have measured since beginning to track the rate in 2008, including the period before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into effect. That 1.3 point increase represents an estimated 3.2 million Americans who entered the ranks of the uninsured in 2017.
Gallup knows why the uninsured rate and premiums are rising.
It’s what we all knew.
It lists Trump’s sabotage and Republicans crippling the ACA, by giving massive tax cuts to Trump, Bob Corker, etc. as contributors to the jump in the uninsured rate.
#GOPTaxScam
Gallup goes on to mention how it’s likely Republicans will exacerbate the problems they created by going after Medicare and Medicaid this year.
From 2014 to 2016, the uninsured rate fell consistently. However, that trend reversed last year. During 2017, the Trump administration reduced the advertising budget that promoted sign-ups on the ACA exchanges by 90% and also cut the signup period for the healthcare exchanges in half. Despite these changes, nearly as many people signed up for health insurance on the ACA exchanges for 2018 as did for 2017.
However, it seems likely that the uninsured rate will rise further in the years ahead. President Donald Trump signed a tax bill into law in December that included a repeal of the individual mandate. Without this requirement to have health insurance, it is likely that some Americans will drop their coverage. Rising insurance premiums, which are expected to continue to increase, could also result in some Americans forgoing health coverage. Young adults will be most likely to go without health coverage, meaning that they will no longer help offset the costs of older, less healthy adults -- which will drive up premiums even more.
Having passed their tax bill, congressional Republicans' 2018 legislative goals include reforming funding mechanisms for Medicaid and Medicare -- programs that subsidize healthcare coverage for low-income, disabled and elderly Americans. With less federal assistance from these programs to help offset the rising cost of health insurance, fewer Americans may be able to afford health insurance.
Make sure you share this with all you know. The more who see it, the better.
The fact is: Trumpcare is a complete disaster and it will only get worse.