If there was any good news in the census data dump on Wednesday, it was that the US’s welfare safety net programs and Barack Obama’s signature healthcare legislation are doing exactly what they are supposed to.
The supplemental poverty measure data released by the US Census bureau showed that programs like food stamps, refundable tax credits and social security benefits helped keep millions of Americans out of poverty in 2014. Similarly, the data regarding health insurance coverage showed that last year the number of uninsured Americans dropped by 8.8 million.
“In 2014, the percentage of people without health insurance for the entire calendar year was 10.4%, or 33 million people, lower than the rate, 13.3%, and the number of uninsured, 41.8 million, in 2013,” Victoria Velkoff, chief of the social, economic and housing statistics division at the bureau, said on Wednesday. “The decrease in the uninsured rate was 2.9%, or 8.8 million people.”
Americans with full-time jobs were the least likely to be uninsured.
“This is dramatic proof that the Affordable Care Act is a stunning success,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. “The historic decrease in the number of uninsured Americans is unmistakably attributable to the Affordable Care Act’s implementation.
“The numbers show that the greatest gains were among moderate-income families, communities of color and young people – the precise groups that most needed help in gaining health insurance. According to the report, households with incomes below $25,000 a year saw their rate of coverage increase by 4.3%, and households between $25,000 and $49,999 saw an increase of 5%. Hispanics, black people and Asians increased coverage rates by about 4%. And the rate of uninsured between ages 26 to 34 went down by 5.5%.”
Despite those gains, 16.6% of Americans living in households with an annual income of less than $25,000 had no health insurance coverage last year.
“Low-wage workplaces typically do not offer health insurance,” said Arline Geronimus, professor of health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
Health care costs incurred by the low-income Americans can actually force them into poverty or keep them there.
The supplemental poverty measure (SPM) report released on Wednesday looks at the effectiveness of various elements in alleviating poverty as well as effects of various other expenses. In 2014, the SPM was 15.3% – that’s equivalent to more than 48 million Americans living in poverty.
The SPM report found that last year social security benefits reduced SPM by 8.2%, tax credits reduced it by 3.1% and food stamps reduced it by 1.5%. Out-of-pocket expenses, however, increased the SPM by 3.5%. Each percentage point is equivalent to more than 3 million Americans.
“In the US system, we all have out-of-pocket expenses for medical care: co-pays, deductibles, etc. This is true even for folks with strong health insurance,” explained Geronimus.
Cheaper health plans – those that might be more affordable to low-income Americans – often have higher co-pays and deductibles.
Geronimus was not surprised that out of pocket medical expenses were presented by the US Census bureau as one of the biggest ticket items to increase poverty rate.
“Not only is health care very expensive in the US, but the poor are in worse health and the uninsured are more likely to use expensive forms of healthcare – like emergency rooms,” she said. “And, of course, the same co-pays or deductibles would be a larger share of their income.”
