Our Health Policy Matters

A different kind of climate change was in the news this week, as Gallup reported that the percentage of people who are uninsured declined rapidly from 17.1 percent to 15.9 percent in just three months. That is a pretty substantial drop, and one that began when people started signing up for Obamacare. According to Gallup and others, it translates into an additional 3 million people who now have health insurance, consistent with the numbers of people signing up for Affordable Care Act coverage. That’s good news for Obamacare – perhaps.  One of the more interesting – and sometimes frustrating – things about health policy is that like climate change it unfolds slowly over time, and so it is often difficult to see the change in climate while it is happening. For one thing, there are always other variables.  For example, the unemployment rate has also gone down during this period, from 7.2 percent last October to 6.7 percent today . It is possible that some o...

A different kind of climate change was in the news this week, as Gallup reported that the percentage of people who are uninsured declined rapidly from 17.1 percent to 15.9 percent in just three months. That is a pretty substantial drop, and one that began when people started signing up for Obamacare. According to Gallup and others, it translates into an additional 3 million people who now have health insurance, consistent with the numbers of people signing up for Affordable Care Act coverage. That’s good news for Obamacare – perhaps.  One of the more interesting – and sometimes frustrating – things about health policy is that like climate change it unfolds slowly over time, and so it is often difficult to see the change in climate while it is happening. For one thing, there are always other variables.  For example, the unemployment rate has also gone down during this period, from 7.2 percent last October to 6.7 percent today . It is possible that some o...