About 9.5 million Americans who were previously uninsured have gotten health coverage under Obamacare, according to a new analysis.
The Los Angeles Times reported the number, which combines data from an unpublished study by RAND Corp. with other publicly available figures. It’s one of the most comprehensive efforts yet to asses the law’s impact on the uninsured as open enrollment comes to a close.
The numbers break down like this:
- 6 million people have enrolled in private coverage through Healthcare.gov and its state counterparts. The Times estimated that about one-third of them — or about 2 million — were uninsured, based in part on new numbers from RAND.
- 4.5 million previously uninsured people have signed up for Medicaid since the law launched in October, according to RAND.
- 3 million young adults age 26 and younger have gotten covered through their parents’ insurance plan, as the law allows.
RAND also estimated that about 9 million people have signed up for coverage directly through their insurer, though most of those people were already insured. RAND has surveyed 3,300 adults, ages 18 to 64, nationally. It estimated that the uninsured rate for that population has fallen from 20.9 percent to 16.6 percent.
