[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 134 (Thursday, September 17, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S6775]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE

  Mr. REID. Finally, the number of Americans without health insurance 
dropped dramatically last year. All the press yesterday and this 
morning are reporting this, but this comes as no surprise. The good 
news happened as the Affordable Care Act's major coverage provisions 
took effect. This is further evidence the Affordable Care Act is 
working. The share of people without coverage dropped in every State in 
the Union in 2014. That is the first time in the history of the Census 
reports that every State has improved.
  States that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act did 
better than those that did not. States that adopted the new law's 
Medicaid expansion had a 3.5-percentage-point drop in their uninsured 
rate. That is about 1\1/2\ times the 2.3-percentage-point decline in 
States that did not expand the program. Overall, the national uninsured 
rate dropped by 2.9 percentage points.
  Now, all these numbers mean that the uninsured rate is now at the 
lowest in the history of our country--the lowest ever. Once again, the 
Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare, is working.

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