The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Monday that about 16.4 million uninsured Americans have gained health insurance since Obamacare was enacted five years ago,
International Business Times reported.
The figure was contained
in a new report issued Monday by HHS claiming since 2010, 2.3 million young adults gained coverage as a result of provisions of the law requiring that they remain on their parents' insurance until they are 26 years old. HHS said that another 14.1 million adults had gained coverage since Obamacare open enrollment began in 2013.
HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell boasted that since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama in March 2010, the United States has seen "the largest reduction in the uninsured in four decades."
The report — which is just two pages long — leaves important questions unanswered. It is unclear whether the figures cited by HHS include the millions of Americans who received cancellation notices pursuant to the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare's official name.
It is also unclear how many of those who have gained insurance coverage are obtaining it as a result of the expansion of Medicaid, a program
already under fire for providing substandard care and devouring state budgets.
Also, the administration has come under fire before from outside experts for exaggerating the Obamacare enrollment figures.
Last month, for example, the White House said that 11.4 million people signed up for coverage through private healthcare exchanges. But when Forbes' Avik Roy
looked at the administration's figures, he calculated that the actual number enrolled was closer to between 5 million and 5.4 million previously uninsured.
Last year, HHS was caught inflating Obamacare signups by including 380,000 dental subscribers, which are supposed to be in a separate category. By doing this, the agency boosted the signup figure over 7 million, prompting an apology from the department.
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