United States: More than almost 8% of Americans, or about 27.1 million people, were without health insurance during the first many months of 2024, according to a new check and studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This marks an increase of 3.4 million uninsured compared to the same period in 2023, when 7.7% of Americans were without content.
Implications for Public Health and Emergency Services
The rise in the uninsured rate could have broad implications for public health and access to medical care, highlighting ongoing challenges in achieving universal health coverage and potentially increasing strain on emergency services and public health programs
CDC Notes Increase Not Yet Statistically Significant
As reported by HealthDay, however, the increases are not yet large enough to be considered statistically significant Christy Hagen of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics told CBS News.
Medicaid Eligibility Checks Resume Amid Concerns
Also, the health experts and health officials have credited the record low uninsured rates of the recent years to pandemic-era which changes the health insurances before 2020 the nations’ uninsured rate had peaked at more than 10%.
And one big factor that had been a pause in the states rechecking the eligibility of the residents covered by the Medicaid, effectively suspending a practice that tends to purge otherwise eligible enrollees from the state health insurance rolls.
Those specific eligibility checks that have now returned with Medicaid slated to finish them in the almost all the states by the end of this month.
Outlook and Projections
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated in June that the rates of Americans not covered by health insurance were likely to worsen even further by 2026, following declines in Medicaid enrolment and the end of temporary subsidies.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office has also forecast that the U.S. uninsured rate would worsen in the coming years.