There has been a 7.9 percent increase in the number of Americans who don’t have health insurance, according to a report of the US Census. From the data in 2017, a total of 27.5 million Americans live without medical insurance.
For some experts, the increase can hefty to the Trump administration’s policies designed to discourage participation in public benefits and to undermine the Affordable Care Act.
In the year 2017, President Donald Trump junked subsidies to health insurance companies that aims to lower the cost of health plans for low-income Americans. Months following this decision, Trump has signed legislation eliminating the tax penalty for Americans who forego health insurance. This has caused more people to not avail medical insurance as there will be no hefty penalties.
“In a period of continued economic growth, continued job growth, you would certainly hope that you wouldn’t be going backward when it comes to insurance coverage,” said Senior Vice President of Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Sharon Parrott.
The US Census also stated that the median household income has increased by 3.4 percent or $40,247. There is no significant data increase for the years 2017 and 2018. Individuals who worked full-time got an increase of about 3.4 percent; with 2.3 million workers between 2017 and 2018.
Poverty Rate
There is a decrease of 0.5 percent for the poverty rate in 2018, according to the report. Although the decrease is not huge, this is recorded as the fourth consecutive annual decline of the poverty rate in America. A total of people in poverty is 38.1 million, 1.4 million fewer people from the record in 2017.
Trump administration cracks down immigrants enrolling in Medicaid, changing the public charge rules to penalize migrants.
