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16 million more insured since health care reform law approved

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16 million more insured since health care reform law approved

More than 16 million adult Americans have gained health insurance coverage due to the health care reform law, the Department of Health & Human Services said Monday.

That tally includes 14.1 million previously uninsured adults who have been added to the health insurance rolls since October 2013, the beginning of the first public health insurance exchange open enrollment period.

The total also includes 2.3 million young adults ages 19 through 25, who have gained coverage due to a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires employers to continue coverage to employees' adult children.

“Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act almost five years ago, about 16.4 million uninsured people have gained health coverage — the largest reduction in the uninsured in four decades,” HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said in a statement.

The big gains in coverage are the result of several provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which lawmakers passed five years ago.

For example, the health insurance law gave states hefty financial incentives to expand their Medicaid programs. More than two dozen states did so, changing their laws to allow uninsured individuals earning up to 138% of the poverty level to qualify. Previously, individuals earning more than 100% in the federal poverty level were not eligible for Medicaid.

In addition, the law provides federal premium subsidies to the lower income uninsured — those making between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level — to obtain coverage in public exchanges.

The law also requires employers to extend coverage to employees' adult children until age 26. Prior to the health insurance law, employers typically ended coverage to employees' children at age 18 or 19, or 23 or 24 in the case of full-time college students.

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