According to the Associated Press, the devilishly-liberal Affordable Care Act, lovingly referred to by Republicans as "Obamacare," has lead to 2.5 million more young adults receiving health insurance because they were able to remain on their parents' insurance policies.
Using unpublished quarterly statistics from the government’s ongoing National Health Interview Survey, analysts in Sebelius’ policy office determined that nearly 36 percent of those age 19-25 were uninsured in the third calendar quarter of 2010, before the law’s provision took effect. That translates to more than 10.5 million people.
By the second calendar quarter of 2011, the proportion of uninsured young adults had dropped to a little over 27 percent, or about 8 million people. The difference — nearly 2.5 million getting coverage — can only be the result of the health care law, administration officials said, because the number covered by public programs like Medicaid went down slightly. Overall, nearly 30 million Americans are between the ages of 19 to 25. For those who are little older, ages 26-35, the uninsured rate went up during the same period. “From September 2010 to June 2011, coverage rose only among those adults affect by the policy,” said the HHS report.
That's 2.5 million over roughly three quarters of a year. And this is only the beginning of the positive affects the Affordable Care Act will have. In two years, when the remainder of the law has taken affect, those between the ages of 26 and 65 will be covered through other means.
According to the Republicans, this is bad news. The entire Republican campaign of 2012 is predicated on repealing "Obamacare" and resetting the clock to 2009 when young people lost their parents' insurance at age 23, insurers could deny your claims because of preexisting conditions, those who were virtually un-insurable were shit out of luck, and there was no requirement that insurers use at least 80 percent of your premium for actual healthcare.
Does anyone really want to go back to that? I expect the American people will say no next year.
(via ThinkProgress)