A survey conducted by Gallup has shown that there have been considerable gains since last fall.
The health care reform has generated a larger rise in health insurance coverage than had been previously calculated, according to the survey data from research that was recently conducted by Gallup.
That study indicates that there are now 12 million Americans with coverage who were previously uninsured.
This is the difference that has been recorded by Gallup since last fall when the health care reform was originally rolled out. Though the federal health insurance exchange had a disastrous start that was riddled with technological errors, the first two months ironed out the majority of the problems and allowed Americans to enroll in droves; and apparently that’s exactly what they did.
The last month of the open enrollment period brought in a tremendous number of new health insurance customers.
It was estimated by Gallup that there were as many as 4 million more people who had signed up by the end of March as had been previously predicted by the research firm. It seemed that there were more Americans than forecasted who waited until the last few weeks in order to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, only 12.9 percent of adults across the country still did not have insurance plans during the first half of April. This is the lowest rate that has been recorded since the survey started collecting data in 2008. Comparatively, in the third quarter of last year, about 18 percent of Americans were uninsured.
The company behind the poll does caution that the data that it has collected remains preliminary, but that it is becoming ever more clear that the health care reform is responsible for the improvements that have been made in the number of uninsured adult Americans. The survey’s research director, Dan Witters, said that “It is fair to say it is having a significant impact.”
At the same time, opponents of Obamacare continue to claim that the overhaul of the system hasn’t done much to increase health insurance coverage overall.