The proportion of the US population without health insurance in the United States hit a new low of eight percent in early 2022, President Joe Biden’s administration announced on Tuesday.
After the Affordable Care Act came into force in 2014, the number of uninsured began to fall sharply. Ambitious health insurance reform, better known as “Obamacare,” was former President Barack Obama’s flagship act, with Biden serving as Vice President.
However, between 2018 and 2019, the number of uninsured recovered before falling again.
The Health Department said that based on a household survey it conducted, since early 2021 when Biden took office, 5.2 million people have purchased health insurance, a number that includes one million children.
However, around 26 million people in the country remain without health insurance.
“No one should worry about paying their doctor or choosing between paying rent and filing a prescription,” Biden said in a statement.
“Today we are closer to realizing this principle than ever before,” he added.
The president attributed the increase in the number of Americans with health insurance to improvements in the American Rescue Plan, the emergency response plan passed early in his term that included measures to improve access to health insurance through grants to help families get health insurance.
“Pretty cool, isn’t it, @BarackObama?” Biden said on Twitter.
“You bet, Joe,” the former president replied.
The two men urged Congress to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that focuses primarily on clean energy and climate but also includes measures to secure health care subsidies and reduce drug prices.
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