More than 8% of the U.S. population didn’t have health insurance in the first three months of 2024, according to findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) quarterly National Health Interview Survey. That percentage equates to 27.1 million Americans and marks the first notable increase in uninsured citizens since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The percentage of uninsured Americans in the first quarter of 2023 was 7.7%, according to the CDC. The 2023 figure was one of four consecutive quarters in which the percentage of uninsured Americans fell below 8%.
While 2024 numbers have broken the streak and mark an increase, the CDC says this rising total is not yet “statistically significant,” adding that future quarterly surveys will paint a more accurate picture of health insurance use in the United States.
Why the increase?
The number of uninsured Americans climbed to 10.3% in the months before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, numbers dropped during the pandemic and remained on a lower trajectory until 2024’s recent upswing.
Experts have credited pandemic-era healthcare changes with significantly reducing that number, particularly a moratorium placed on states reverifying Medicaid eligibility requirements. This moratorium prevented habitual churn and stopped many otherwise eligible individuals from being displaced from state health insurance programs.
However, the moratorium is over and most states are expected to return to standard Medicaid reviews by the end of August.
What’s next? Increase may be start of disturbing trend
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services forecasts that the return of eligibility checks, otherwise known as Medicaid unwinding, and the conclusion of COVID-related temporary subsidies will cause the number of uninsured Americans to return to pre-pandemic levels by 2026.
The Congressional Budget Office shares a similar view, adding that the influx of new immigrants will also drive the nation’s uninsured population higher.
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