Growth of Insured Population Comes to a Halt

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health Interview Survey estimated that the population of Americans with health insurance did not appreciate last year for the first time since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, reports CNBC . Last year, 29.3 million people, or 9.1 percent of the U.S. population, were uninsured, versus 28.6 million people, or 9 percent, the year before. These numbers are still well below the 16 percent of the population lacking health insurance when the ACA was passed. However, this could be the start of a reversal as Republicans push to defang the law. The GOP succeeded in repealing the individual mandate requiring most people to have some form of health insurance or pay a tax penalty, as part of the broader tax law it approved in December. Experts predict this move will leave more people uninsured, as well as highly elevate premiums in ACA exchanges as healthier, younger people choose to skip coverage. Among adults between 18 and 64, 69.3 percent were covered under private plans, 19.3 percent had public coverage, and 12.8 percent were uninsured at the time of the 2017 interview. High-deductible plans, where consumers pay more costs out-of-pocket before their insurance goes into effect, continue to grow in popularity. In 2017, the number of such enrollees climbed to 43.7 percent from 39.4 percent in 2016.