According to an official statement by the insurance commissioner’s office on Feb. 3, the number of uninsured people in Washington State has been reduced by half since the health care reforms. The same report also noted that there are still about half a million residents who remain uninsured.
While the exact number of uninsured people in Washington State is indeterminable, insurance commissioner Mike Kreidler noted that the state has made good progress nonetheless. He credits the ACA and the expansion of free insurance access through Medicaid for the state’s improvement.
Kreidler pointed out that those states that did not expand Medicaid experienced issues that could have been avoided. Lower income residents from such states and without insurance were forced to choose either to pay a federal penalty fee or purchase insurance they cannot afford.
Washington State’s health insurance exchange reported Feb. 1 that up to 200,000 people signed up for insurance during the open enrollment period that lasted until Sunday. The number was 35,000 more than what the exchange had anticipated.
Over 150,000 likely purchased insurance in the individual market and outside of the exchange before the ACA came into effect, Kreidler shared. The rest of the recently insured all signed up through Medicaid.
Kreidler remarked that low income individuals could find health insurance too pricey, but may not actually qualify for Medicaid due to their income just barely exceeding the minimum requirement.
“It’s going to take work,” he said of the task to get the remaining half a million people insured.
