Five Recent Observations About Obamacare

March 31 has come and gone, and the sign-up deadline for health insurance under Obamacare has passed.

To help cut through all the noise and conflicting reports surrounding the deadline, here are five observations worth noting:

1. Thanks to a big push at the last minute, there were more sign ups than expected. As of April 1, 7.1 million people had enrolled in private health plans through the state and Federal marketplaces. http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/blog/2014/04/more-7-million-americans-are-signed-private-health-coverage.html

2. Also, as of the end of February, three million Americans had signed up for Medicaid under Obamacare, which expanded this state-Federal insurance program for low-income Americans. This means that about 62 million people are now covered under Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/04/obamacare-medicaid-expansion_n_5091696.html

3. There are still a lot of uninsured people in America. But, according to the Urban Institute, the uninsurance rate for non-elderly adults (age 18-64) in March 2014 was 15.2 percent of the nation, a decline of 2.7 percentage points since September 2013, the month before open enrollment for Obamacare began. This means that about 5.4 million adults have gained coverage. States that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare saw uninsurance rates drop 4.0 percentage points, versus a 1.5 percentage point drop in states that chose not to expand Medicaid. http://hrms.urban.org/quicktakes/changeInUninsurance.html

4. The delay in Obamacare’s employer mandate probably wasn’t tracked by a lot of people who thought they would be getting health coverage through their employer. This may have kept the Obamacare sign-up numbers in late March lower than they might have been without the confusion surrounding the delay.

5. People can still get coverage under Obamacare – even if they missed the sign-up deadline on March 31. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/01/what-to-do-missed-obamacare-deadline/7154919/ And, for those who plan ahead, open enrollment for 2015 starts on November 14, 2014.