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Medicaid isn't the only option for premium-controlled health insurance in the US. As far as I'm aware, everyone in the US is able to purchase health insurance f
by tfehring 8y ago
Medicaid isn't the only option for premium-controlled health insurance in the US. As far as I'm aware, everyone in the US is able to purchase health insurance for at most 9.86% of their income in 2019, except:
- Those who earn less than 100% of the federal poverty level ($12k/year for an individual, $25k/year for a family of 4) in states that haven't expanded Medicaid (~2.2 million people [0])
- Those who earn more than 400% of the federal poverty level ($48k/year for an individual, $100k/year for a family of 4) but aren't offered health insurance through an employer (e.g., because they're self-employed or work for a small business) (~900 thousand people [1])
Both are legitimate and significant coverage gaps, but they only affect ~1.5% of non-elderly adults in the US. For comparison, the number of adults that qualify for free or subsidized coverage but chose not to enroll is about 4x larger as of 2016 [2].
[0] https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-coverage-gap-uninsured-poor-adults-in-states-that-do-not-expand-medicaid/ https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/the-coverage-gap-un...
[1] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2017/jul/extending-marketplace-tax-credits-would-make-coverage-more https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...
[2] https://www.kff.org/uninsured/issue-brief/estimates-of-eligibility-for-aca-coverage-among-the-uninsured-in-2016/ https://www.kff.org/uninsured/issue-brief/estimates-of-eligi...