WEDNESDAY, Nov. 30, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Fewer Americans are struggling to pay medical bills now than five years ago, a new government report shows.
The number of people in families having problems paying medical bills fell by nearly 13 million from 2011 through the first six months of 2016, according to the report released Wednesday by U.S. National Centers for Health Statistics (NCHS).
During that period, 17.8 million fewer people were uninsured, although the report doesn’t explore why fewer folks reported problems with medical bills.
But public health researchers say expanded health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — also known as Obamacare — and an improving economy likely eased the pain.
Those helped most by the health law are the poorest, those making less than 150 percent of the poverty level, said Kristin Baughman. She is an associate professor of family and community medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University.
Under federal guidelines, a person earning 150 percent of the poverty level would make $17,820 a year.
“They are given the lowest, most affordable premiums or are eligible for the expanded Medicaid program in some states,” Baughman noted.
Whether that relief continues under the incoming Trump administration remains to be seen. The president-elect has pledged to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Already, the number of people experiencing relief from medical bills year-to-year appears to be leveling off, the report revealed.
“There’s no statistical change between 2015 and the first six months of 2016,” said report author Robin Cohen, an NCHS statistician. “But when you look at the overall trend, there’s still a linear decrease between 2011 and 2016.”
Jacqueline Wiltshire agreed that people were worse off in 2011. She’s an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of South Florida.
“If the ACA gets repealed and they don’t substitute that with something that’s equal to Obamacare or better, we can expect to see these numbers spike back up,” she said.
The NCHS researchers analyzed data from a national survey of nearly 580,000 family members under the age of 65 in U.S. households.
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