Young Americans Most Likely to Lack Healthcare Coverage

The number of Americans who have no healthcare insurance increased again in 2018, the first time since 2010, which was the year the Affordable Care Act went into effect. From 2017 to 2018, the number of people with no health care plan rose most steeply among those 35 to 64 years old.

According to the CDC, it is young adults in the age group of 19 to 34, however, who are most likely to be uninsured in the U.S. In 2018, 14.3 percent of 19-to-25-year-olds and 13.9 percent of 26-to-34-year-olds had no health insurance. After 2010, the share of uninsured Americans decreased in all age groups. The law also known as Obamacare pushed levels of uninsured younger Americans down most significantly since they could now also be covered under their parents’ health insurance (if existing) between the ages of 19 and 25. They were also given more opportunities once they grew out of their parents’ coverage by allowing them to use standardized healthcare marketplaces if they weren’t (yet) covered by their employer.

An outright repeal of Obamacare has become unlikely under President Trump, but his administration has been able to decrease public healthcare enrollment by eliminating 90 percent of the ACA’s advertising budget in 2018 and announcing the recently adopted “public charge” rule. The rule says that legal immigrants lower their chances of receiving residency or certain visas when using Medicaid (or other publicly funded services) for more than 12 months out of any given 36-month period, according to CNBC.