Gallup: Young gaining insurance, older adult workers losing it

Gallup's latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey is well-timed, and shows the very real impact President Obama talked about in Ohio today. The Affordable Care Act is working for young adults.

Despite employer-based insurance rates declining for younger adults, up to age 27, there are fewer of them without insurance because of the Affordable Care Act's provision that allows them to stay on their parents' health plans. So while fewer are reporting employer-based insurance, their insurance rates have improved.

Not all the news on insurance rates is good, of course. The downward trend of people aged 26 to 64 getting insurance from an employer that began in 2008 continues. "The 55.9% who reported having it in the second quarter of 2012 is down from 56.7% in 2011 and is the lowest Gallup has found since 2008," Gallup reports.

But:

It is clear, though, that one part of the law'the piece allowing those up to age 26 to stay on their parents' plans'has already had a significant effect. More 18- to 25-year-olds have gained health insurance. [...] Those who are older, though, have become more likely to be uninsured'mainly due to fewer reporting that they are getting insurance from an employer.

The rest of the law, as Obama explained, will start bringing down the number of uninsured as soon as it's fully implemented.

That's the kind of success Republicans want to stop from happening. Because, as Mitch McConnell says, covering the uninsured is "not the issue" as far as they're concerned. Neither is covering people with pre-existing conditions, according to John Boehner. And then there's the slew of Republican governors willing to sacrifice people's lives to make a political point.