Obama Administration: 16.4M Have Gained Health Insurance

More than 16 million Americans have gained coverage since President Barack Obama’s health care law took effect five years ago, the administration said Monday. But measuring a different way, an independent expert who took into account insurance losses during some of those years had a much lower estimate: 9.7 million. The Department of Health and Human Services estimated that 16.4 million adults have gained health insurance since the law’s major coverage provisions began taking effect in 2010. The lower independent estimate is based on a large daily survey called the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. There seems to be no dispute that Obama’s law has significantly reduced the number of uninsured Americans. The question is, by how much? It will take time for authoritative statistics to emerge, particularly when the government and outside experts are using different estimating methods.

Source/more: Associated Press via Yahoo News

David Wingate is an elder law attorney practicing in Frederick and Montgomery counties, Maryland. The practice includes trusts, wills, powers of attorney, Medicaid, and asset protection.