PPACA’s Effect on the Uninsured Rate: 5 Things to Know

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has made a direct impact on the percentage of people without health insurance in America, with the uninsured rate falling by 5 percent since the PPACA’s rollout.

Here are five things to know about the PPACA and its effect on the uninsured rate.

1. A Commonwealth Fund survey found there are 9.5 million fewer uninsured adults in America since the PPACA’s rollout last year. The survey also found Medicaid expansion under the PPACA was a major contributor to the decline in the uninsured rate. The survey revealed the number of people in poverty without insurance fell from 28 percent to 17 percent in states that have expanded Medicaid, while the uninsured rate for the same group remained stagnant at 36 percent in states that have not expanded Medicaid.

2. Nearly 60 percent of those who purchased non-group coverage off of the federal health exchange created under the PPACA were previously uninsured, and the majority of those who purchased non-group coverage on the federal marketplace had not had coverage for two years or more.

3. Seventy percent of the newly insured who purchased coverage on the federal exchange said they decided to buy insurance because of the PPACA.

4. With only 6 of the 17 southern states implementing Medicaid expansion under the PPACA, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found southerners are more likely to be uninsured that people living in other parts of the U.S., with 21 percent of nonelderly southerners uninsured.

5. Nationally, 4.8 million uninsured adults in states not expanding Medicaid will fall into a coverage gap, meaning they don’t qualify for Medicaid but also don’t meet the threshold (100 percent of the federal poverty level) for subsidies to help them buy health plans through the exchanges. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found 79 percent of the 4.8 million uninsured adults who fall into the coverage gap live in the south.