A total of 16.4 million non-elderly adults have gained health insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act became law five years ago this month.  Those gaining insurance since 2010 include 2.3 million young adults aged 18 to 26 who were able to remain on their parents’ health insurance plus another 14.1 million adults who obtained coverage through expansions of the Medicaid program, new marketplace coverage and other sources.

Officials say the percentage of people without coverage has dropped about a third since 2012: from 20.3 percent to 13.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015, with the  Latino uninsured rate falling 12.3 percentage points, and the  rate for African Americans falling by nearly half.

States that expanded the Medicaid program to 138 percent of the poverty line also saw large reductions in their low-income uninsured populations – an average of 13 percent among people with incomes under the new Medicaid threshold. States that haven’t expanded the program still saw a decline, though not as large, of about 7 percent.     (Copyright 2015 NPR)

In Europe the principle that everyone should have access to healthcare is so long- established that I find it incomprehensible that a large number of Americans not only don’t believe in the principle, but spend time rubbishing European health services.  Even liberal-minded people will ignore the fact that healthcare in countries like the UK have been delivered with hugely less cost and bureaucracy than the ” free enterprise” American version.  Were the British system to cost 16% of GNP it would probably be able to do away with waiting lists, which every American brings up when discussing public health.

The fact is that American health care has been riddled with corruption and layers of bureaucracy.  The best bit of it is Medicare ( for older people) and that is run by the dreaded government.  Extraordinary, the grip of ideology!  The system is now a dog’s dinner, a thicket of different programs  that perpetuate a boondoggle.