Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act outside the Capitol Building in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2017.
Aaron P. Bernstein | Reuters
The rate of Americans with health insurance decreased in 2018, marking the first drop since the Affordable Care Act came in effect in 2014.
In 2018, 27.5 million people, or 8.5% of the population of the United States, did not have health insurance at any point of the year, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Census Bureau.
This rate is up from 7.9%, or 25.6 million people, in 2017. The report also showed that the percentage of people with health insurance coverage for all or part of 2018 was 91.5%, which was lower than 92.1% in 2017.
In response to the recent report, experts are saying the increase in the number of people lacking health insurance is the result of the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the ACA.
Leslie Dach, Protect Our Care chair, said in a statement, “The latest Census numbers prove once again that the Trump-GOP sabotage agenda continues to wreak havoc on American health care and prevent Americans from getting the coverage they need.”
Since President Donald Trump came in office in 2016, his administration has attempted numerous times to repeal the ACA, a law passed under the Obama administration that makes health insurance coverage available to all Americans at an affordable cost, including people with pre-existing health conditions.
Although the administration failed to repeal the law it did change some elements, including a provision that levied a tax penalty if people didn’t have health coverage. That provision was designed to encourage healthy people to sign up for health insurance. Insurance companies need healthier people in the insurance pool to keep costs low.
The Trump Administration also cut funding in 2018 for advertising for open enrollment — an annual period of time in which people can sign up for health insurance — by 90%, resulting in as many as 1.1 million fewer people getting covered, according to Protect Our Care, a health-care adovacy group.
In August 2018, Trump also allowed people to remain longer in less-expensive short-term health plans that offer less comprehensive coverage and sometimes deny prescription drug coverage, hospitalization and maternity care. The Obama administration had previously restricted the use of these short-term plans to three months. However, Trump extended the period up to 12 months, allowing consumers to renew their coverage twice.