Report: 121,965,000 on Government Health Insurance

13.6 million more people are enrolled in government health insurance programs now than they were in 2013, new reports say.

In 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, 121,965,000 people were enrolled in government plans based on information collected by the Census Bureau’s annual report on health insurance coverage. The information was released last week.

The 13.6 million is somewhat remarkable give that 2013 was the last year before the Obamacare government health-insurance exchanges opened.

CNS News reports:

The 121,965,000 on government health insurance in 2017 included 52.2 percent of individuals living in households with incomes under $75,000; 47.2 percent of individuals living in households with incomes under $100,000; and 37.7 percent of the entire national population.

The Census Bureau Report reads:

This report classifies health insurance coverage into three different groups: overall coverage, private coverage, and government coverage.

The percentage of people with health insurance coverage for all or part of 2017 was 91.2 percent, not statistically different from the rate in 2016 (91.2 percent). Between 2016 and 2017, the number of people with health insurance coverage increased by 2.3 million, up to 294.6 million.

Private coverage includes health insurance provided through an employer or union and coverage purchased directly by an individual from an insurance company or through an exchange.

Government coverage includes federal programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), individual state health plans, TRICARE, CHAMPVA (Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs), as well as care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the military.

Individuals are consid­ered to be uninsured if they did not have health insurance coverage at any point during the calendar year.

Other interesting facts from the report:

• In 2017, private health insurance coverage continued to be more prevalent than government coverage, at 67.2 percent and 37.7 percent, respectively.
• The military coverage rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.8 percent during this time.
• Between 2016 and 2017, the rate of Medicare coverage increased by 0.6 percentage points to cover 17.2 percent of people for part or all of 2017 (up from 16.7 percent in 2016).