As the Affordable Care Act faces its latest Supreme Court challenge, the federal government reported Monday that 16.4 million Americans have acquired health insurance under the 2010 reform act.
“Obamacare,” the Affordable Care Act championed by President Obama, has seen 16.4 million Americans added to ranks of those with health insurance. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
A total of 14.1 million people have enrolled in health insurance plans since the Obamacare health insurance marketplace was unveiled — with multiple early glitches — in October of 2013.
The result is the percentage of uninsured Americans has fallen from 20 percent in the first quarter to 13.2 percent a year later.
An additional 2.3 million young people, aged 19 to 25. have been able to remain on their parents’ health care plans.
The country has seen “the largest reduction in the uninsured in four decades,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, a former senior Gates Foundation executive, said in a statement.
“When it comes to the key metrics of affordability, access and quality, the evidence shows the Affordable Care Act works and families, businesses and taxpayers are better off as a result,” she added.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a Supreme Court brief defending the Affordable Care Act. Republican predecessor Rob McKenna was part of earlier legal challenge.
The gains in insured are most pronounced among Hispanics and African Americans.
A total of 4.2 million Latinos have acquired health insurance since early 2014, dropping the percentage of uninsured from 42.8 percent to 29.5 percent.
The enrollment of 2.3 million African Americans has dropped the percentage of uninsured from 22.4 percent to 13.2 percent.
The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act in 2012, on the vote of Chief Justice John Roberts.
The high court is now considering a legal challenge to subsidies under the 2010 health care reform law.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is among the state attorney generals who have filed briefs in defense of Obamacare.
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