Campaign Action
Since 2008, Gallup and Sharecare have been taking quarterly surveys of the uninsured rate. In November, 2016 they recorded a record low rate, at 10.9 percent. But since then?
The percentage of U.S. adults lacking health insurance rose in the third quarter of 2017 to 12.3%, up 0.6 percentage points from the previous quarter and 1.4 points since the end of 2016. The uninsured rate is now the highest recorded since the last quarter of 2014 when it was 12.9%. […]
However, the 1.4-point increase in the percentage of adults without health insurance since the end of last year represents nearly 3.5 million Americans who have entered the ranks of the uninsured.
Still, the uninsured rate remains well below its peak of 18.0% measured in the third quarter of 2013, prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) mandated healthcare exchanges and the associated requirement that all adults have health insurance or be subject to a fine.
Larry Levitt, Senior VP at Kaiser Family Foundation counsels caution. The margin of error for the survey is +/- 1 percent, close to the 1.4 percent increase they found, and he believes the survey "probably overstates things."
However, the downward trajectory in the uninsured rate since 2013 has stopped, and probably reversed. Which means in real terms that Trump's sabotage is keeping people from getting insurance.