The number of Americans without health insurance dropped dramatically over the past three years under ObamaCare — with the biggest reductions in Republican-leaning states, a survey released Wednesday revealed.
The national rate of uninsured citizens fell from 17.3 percent in 2013 to 10.9 percent last year, the Gallup-Healthways Well Being analysis said.
Red states were among those with the biggest reductions.
The uninsured rate in Kentucky plummeted from 20.4 percent to 7.8 percent; in Arkansas it fell from 22.5 percent to 10.2 percent and in West Virginia it was cut from 17.6 percent to 6.1 percent.
The sweeping reductions come as President Trump and the GOP-led Congress seek to overhaul the Affordable Care Act.
In New York, the number of uninsured sunk from 12.6 percent to 7 percent.
The states with the greatest improvements in getting people on the insurance rolls agreed to expand their Medicaid program, the public health insurance program for the needy, under ObamaCare.
Other states with the biggest drops in uninsured were New Mexico (from 20.2 % to 9%), California (21.6% to 10.5%), Oregon (19.4% to 9.1%), Washington (16.8% to 7.2%), Arizona (20.4% to 11%), Montana (20.7% to 11.3%), and Louisiana (21.7% to 12.5%).
“The decline in the national uninsured rate (from 17.3% in 2013 to 10.9% in the four quarter of 2016), therefore, represents a net decrease of about 15.9 million adults without health insurance over this three-year period,” Gallup said.
But the pollster noted that reducing the number of uninsured was just one of the goals of the ACA, with the others being reducing medical care costs and improving Americans’ overall health.
One the negative side, the survey found that fewer Americans rated their health as excellent in 2016 than in 2010, before ObamaCare was signed into law.
“Obesity, diabetes, and clinical diagnoses of depression are at their highest points since Gallup and Healthways began measurement in 2008,” the survey said.
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