Uninsured rose in 2019 before COVID, and Medicaid has blown up since then

Last week, we had the annual list of information on how many Americans do and do not have health insurance. For the second straight year, the percentage of Americans without health insurance rose, this time from 8.9% to 9.2% (Trump boom, ya know!). You can also look here for the list of uninsured by state.

Wisconsin had its number for uninusred go up for the second straight year, from 5.5% to 5.7%, but that's slightly less than the increase the nation as a whole had, and remarkably it is less that the increase in most Midwestern states.

Change in uninsured rate by state

U.S. 8.9% to 9.2% (+0.3%)

Ill. 7.0% to 7.4% (+0.4%)

Ind. 8.3% to 8.7% (+0.4%)

Iowa 4.7% to 5.0% (+0.3%)

Mich 5.4% to 5.8% (+0.4%)

Minn 4.4% to 4.9% (+0.5%)

Wis. 5.5% to 5.7% (+0.2%)

That survey also looks into how people get their insurance. It was mostly the same as the prior year, other than it appears some people fell off Medicaid, but didn't necessarily get covered through private insurance. NOTE: Numbers won't sum due to the combination of insurance that some people have.

Which indicates to me that there is a gap of the working poor that likely became a significant problem once COVID 19 broke out and many of those lower-wage jobs got shut down. And as the COVID World has taken hold in Wisconsin, we’ve seen a sizable increase of people needing Medicaid in the last 6 months. And the Medicaid rolls have continued to go up in recent months, even as some of the jobs have come back.

Of course, these numbers only go through the end of 2019, and don't reflect the job losses and related stresses of the COVID World. Then add in the looming Supreme Court case against the Affordable Care Act, and we may look back at 9.2% uninsured as a time of great security compared to scariness that 2020 and beyond is offering.