Obamacare Has Reversed A Negative Trend. Researchers Call It ‘Remarkable.’
BY TARA CULP-RESSLER POSTED ON JANUARY 15, 2015 AT 8:47 AM UPDATED: JANUARY 15, 2015 AT 10:20 AM
For the first time in a decade, the number of people struggling to pay their medical bills has started to decline, according to a new survey released on Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund. The researchers attributed the historic drop to the number of people gaining insurance under the health care reform law.
Between 2012 and 2014 — as Obamacare’s main coverage expansion took effect — the Commonwealth researchers found that the number of people who had issues paying for health treatment dropped from 41 percent to 35 percent. Over the same time period, the people who skipped out on health services because they couldn’t afford them declined from 43 percent to 36 percent:
In a press release, the researchers described the declines as “remarkable.” This marks the first time since 2005, when Commonwealth started surveying people on these questions, that the number of Americans struggling to afford medical care hasn’t increased.
“Health insurance really provides people with a financial means to get care,” Sara Collins, a vice president at the Commonwealth Fund and one of the people who worked on the study, told the New York Times. “We don’t know yet that the law is improving people’s health, but this is a first indication that people are affording care that they weren’t able to get in the past.”
more
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/01/15/3611905/obamacare-medical-bills-commonwealth/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=tptop3&utm_campaign=tptop3
