The number of Americans who report having cost-related care access problems and medical-related financial difficulties has declined for the first time in more than a decade, according to the 2014 Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey.
The number of adults who reported not getting care in the past 12 months because of cost declined from 80 million to 66 million people, or from 43 percent to 36 percent, between 2012 and 2014.
Additionally, the number of adults who reported they had problems paying their medical bills in the past 12 months or were paying off medical debt declined from an estimated 75 million people to 64 million people between 2012 and 2014.
Highlighted below are ten additional findings from the 2014 Commonwealth Fund survey:
- Since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2010, the number of uninsured working-age adults declined from an estimated 37 million people to 29 million, or from 20 percent of the population to 16 percent, between 2010 and the second half of 2014.
- The decline in uninsured Americans from 2012 to 2014 — after the first year of full implementation of the PPACA's insurance options for people without employer-sponsored health insurance — is the first statistically significant decline measured by the survey since it began in 2001.
- The uninsured rate is now at its lowest level since 2003.
- Young adults (ages 19-34) have made the most significant coverage gains compared to other age groups. The uninsured rate for young adults has fallen sharply, from 27 percent in 2010 to 23 percent in 2012 and down again in 2014 to 19 percent.
- The uninsured rate among people with incomes under 200 percent of the federal poverty level (or $47,100 for a family of four) declined from 36 percent in to 24 percent between 2010 and 2014.
- The uninsured rate among African Americans fell from 24 percent to 18 percent between 2010 and 2014. Among Latinos, it fell from 39 percent to 34 percent.
- Nearly all (94 percent) adults who were insured all year reported having a regular physician or source of care as opposed to 71 percent of adults who spent some time uninsured during the year.
- Roughly 79 percent of insured adults had their cholesterol checked in the past five years compared with about half (51 percent) of uninsured adults. Uninsured adults were also half as likely as insured adults to receive a flu shot.
- Insured adults in 2014 were also substantially more likely than uninsured adults to say they had received timely cancer screenings.
The survey was conducted from July 22, 2014 to Dec. 14, 2014 by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, with 4,251 adults ages 19 to 64.
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