ICYMI: ‘Most Uninsured Americans Already Eligible For Coverage’

WASHINGTON – As some lawmakers discuss proposals to create unaffordable new government-controlled health insurance systems, such as the public option, or open Medicare up to younger Americans, Axios reports that “[m]ost uninsured Americans are already eligible for Medicaid or subsidized Affordable Care Act coverage.”

They add: “One path to universal health coverage would involve signing millions of Americans up for insurance that’s already available to them, and some states are pursuing that goal … After Congress temporarily expanded eligibility for ACA subsidies earlier this year, 63 percent of uninsured Americans are now eligible for free or subsidized plans, per a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.”

Today, our health care system is working together to expand access to quality care, and the Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that “the number of people eligible for a subsidy to purchase Marketplace coverage has increased 20 percent from 18.1 million to 21.8 million with passage of” the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), while “the majority of uninsured people (63 percent) are now eligible for financial assistance through the Marketplaces, Medicaid, or Basic Health Plans. In fact, more than four out of 10 uninsured people are eligible for a free or nearly free health plan through one of these programs.”

The Associated Press reports that ARPA represents “the biggest expansion of federal help for health insurance since the Obama-era Affordable Care Act,” and separate steps are already underway to extend open enrollment in the federal health care marketplace, eliminate ineffective red tape that can prevent Americans from accessing coverage options and urge the Supreme Court to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

With our health care system already working together to help Americans get healthy and stay healthy, the time has never been better to build on and improve what’s working – where private coverage, Medicare and Medicaid work together to expand access to coverage and care – in order to lower costs, protect patient choice, expand access, improve quality and foster innovation.