The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to expand the health insurance coverage to millions of Americans through a combination of public programs and private-sector health insurance expansions. A recent report reveals that the new enrollments in Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and other healthcare programs aimed for the poor people have reached 6.7 million after the implementation of healthcare reforms last year.
The new figure that mainly comprises state Medicaid plans (that existed before Obamacare) and the Children’s health insurance plan, showed an enrollment increase by about 920,000 people during the month of May. New enrollments are up 11.4% since last October’s Obamacare rollout.
About 8 million people have opted for private health benefit plans via the new state-based Obamacare market places. Even though private enrollment ended, Medicaid enrollment still continues.
However, the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) did not reveal the total number of people enrolled state wise and that have expanded their insurance under the ACA, which makes the benefits available to low-income group individuals having earnings up to 133 % of the federal poverty level. It was found that enrollment in these programs has increased to 17% in about 25 states (including the District of Columbia that has expanded Medicaid). Moreover, new enrollments were just 3% higher in states that have not expanded the same.
In an attempt to measure the experience of people with ACA, a new poll was conducted by the Commonwealth Fund which found that people enrolled in the same are satisfied. On the whole, 73% people bought health plans and 87% of people who opted for Medicaid were rated as satisfied with their new policies. About 74% of newly insured people liked their plans. Further, 77% of people who had taken insurance earlier (including members of the much-publicized group whose plans got canceled last year) were quite happy with their new coverage.
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