chart of uninsurances rates over time

Chart of the Day: Obamacare has cut the uninsured rate for working adults by 25%

Though Obamacare is far from perfect, here’s one concrete and vital change that its achieved: The percentage of uninsured Americans has fallen from 13.9 percent to 10.2 percent. The dip would be even bigger if some GOP-controlled states hadn’t refused — cruelly, stupidly, unconscionably — to expand their Medicaid coverage.

chart of uninsurances rates over time

 

Meanwhile, the leader of the conservative organization behind a challenge to Obamacare before the Supreme Court is comparing the law to the Holocaust. (No joke.) And Republicans in Congress are still devoted to repealing it.

Just yesterday, three GOP lawmakers put forth an “alternative” health care reform proposal that would cut back on many of the services deemed “essential benefits,” including dropping the requirement for insurers to cover maternity care. I know, I know — simply shocking that a party that pays so much meaningless lip service to motherhood and family values thinks that ensuring childbirth doesn’t bankrupt us is too much of a luxury.

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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