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March 16, 2015 at 11:27 AM
The Obama administration announced today that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) has expanded health coverage to 16.4 million people who were previously uninsured. This means the law, commonly known as Obamacare, has expanded medical insurance faster than any new policy since Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965.
The announcement today counts 14.1 million people who have enrolled in private plans or expanded Medicaid coverage since 2013, and 2.3 million young adults who were allowed to stay on parent’s health plans until the age of 26. The percentage of Americans without health insurance dropped from 20.3 percent two years ago to 13.2 percent today, according to the administration’s analysis of Gallup polling data. That’s impressive.
See also: 3 things hospitals are saying about PPACA
The greatest increase in U.S. health insurance coverage, however, came from a policy that had nothing to do with health care: wage controls intended to curb inflation during World War II. That encouraged employers to offer health benefits, rare before the middle of the 20th century, because they couldn’t raise salaries.
Here’s a look at how different policies increased coverage five years out.
