CDC Survey

Latest CDC Survey Shows Uninsured Rate Holding Steady at 10%

KEVIN DRUM

The latest CDC numbers on the uninsured population are out. In the first quarter of 2017 the number of uninsured in the US had dropped from about 17 percent before Obamacare to 10.3 percent. That continues to be below the original CBO estimate of 11 percent for 2016 and beyond.

The uninsured rate has been hovering at about 10 percent for the past two years, and this is most likely where it will stay given the constraints and subsidy rates of the current program. Despite the best efforts of Republicans, there’s no evidence that it’s failing or imploding or collapsing. It’s not in a death spiral and it’s not busting the budget. It’s doing fine—better and cheaper than expected, in fact—and our job now should be to improve it, not to deliberately sabotage it.

NOTE: As always, I’m using the CDC’s figures for the nonelderly population. That’s because (a) this is what CBO used for its estimates, so I need to use comparable numbers, and (b) it’s the number we actually care about. The overall figure for all ages is currently 8.8 percent.