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Obamacare effects are bigger than expected, poll finds[/h] WASHINGTON — President
Obama's health law has led to an even greater increase in health coverage than previously estimated, according to new Gallup survey data, which suggests that about 12 million previously uninsured Americans have gained coverage since last fall.
That is millions more than Gallup found in March and suggests that as many as 4 million people have signed up for some kind of insurance in the last several weeks as the first enrollment period for the
Affordable Care Act drew to a close.
Just 12.9% of adults nationally lacked coverage in the first half of April, initial data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index indicate. That's the lowest rate since the survey began in 2008.
Eighteen percent were uninsured in the third quarter of 2013, just before Americans could start shopping for coverage on the new online marketplaces created by the law.
Gallup pollsters cautioned that the data are preliminary but said it is increasingly clear the health law is responsible for the gains. "It is fair to say it is having a significant impact," said Dan Witters, the survey's research director.
Critics of the law, sometimes called Obamacare, say it has done little to expand health coverage.
Gallup's latest data, which parallel recent findings from Rand Corp. and the Urban Institute, lump together all coverage gains, including those on the marketplaces, as well as through other forms of insurance, such as
Medicaid, employer-provided coverage and health plans purchased directly from insurers.
The data also take into account any losses in coverage the law may have brought about by the cancellation of health plans that did not meet new standards.
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