The new
Gallup survey on the uninsured is making a big splash today because of its top line number: 13.4 percent, down from 15 percent in March. That decline, Gallup notes, shows the lowest rate of uninsured Americans since they began surveying this issue in January 2008. Where those declines happened is a huge part of the story, too, though. So is the fact that the declines would have been even larger but for Republican refusal to expand Medicaid.
The uninsured rate was lower in April than in the fourth quarter of 2013 across nearly every key demographic group. The rate dropped more among blacks than any other demographic group, falling 7.1 percentage points to 13.8%. Hispanics were expected to disproportionately benefit from the Affordable Care Act—commonly referred to as "Obamacare"—because they are the subgroup with the highest uninsured rate. Although the percentage of uninsured Hispanics, at 33.2%, is down 5.5 points since the end of 2013, this rate is still the highest by far across key demographic groups.
Similarly, the uninsured rate among lower-income Americans—those with an annual household income of less than $36,000—has also dropped by 5.5 points, to 25.2%, since the fourth quarter of 2013.
The uninsured rate overall, but especially among lower-income people, would have dropped even more had every state decided to accept the Medicaid expansion. Of the 35 states that have
uninsured rates of 15 percent or higher, 21 refused expansion. They've left 5 million people without coverage, purely out of political spite.