CDC: Uninsured rate didn’t rise significantly in 2017
Approximately 29.3 million Americans were uninsured in 2017—a slight but insignificant increase from the year before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but the uninsured rate did rise among states which rejected the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The overall uninsured rate was 9.1 percent. Among adults aged 18-64, 12.8 percent were uninsured at the time they were interviewed by the CDC, up from 12.4 percent in 2016.
Among the report’s other findings on insurance coverage and trends:
- The uninsured rate among children remained roughly the same at 5 percent. There was an increase in the share of children (17 and under) covered by private insurance plans, jumping from 53.8 percent in 2016 to 55 percent in 2017.
- Adults aged 25-34 still had the highest uninsured rate at 17.2 percent.
- Post-ACA gains in coverage among low-income adults appear to have leveled off, as the uninsured rates for the “poor” and “near poor” have remained steady since 2015.
- Broken down by race and ethnicity, Hispanic adults had the highest uninsured rate at 27.2 percent.
- High-deductible health plans continued to become more prevalent, with 43.7 percent of adults enrolled in such plans in 2017, up from 39.4 percent the year before.
While many measures of coverage in the CDC report saw no significant change in 2017, an exception was seen among states’ Medicaid expansion status. In the 18 states which didn’t expand eligibility, 19 percent of adults aged 18-64 were uninsured, up from 17.9 percent the year before.
There’s always been a gap in the uninsured rates between expansion and nonexpansion states since the ACA was passed, but its now growing larger as expansion states’ uninsured rate dropped slightly to 9.1 percent.
A smaller but more current survey from the Commonwealth Fund had said the uninsured rate was beginning to rise again after years of coverage gains after the ACA was signed into law.
John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.