The number of low-income, uninsured Maine adults dropped roughly 5% in the year after the state expanded Medicaid.
Ann Woloson of Consumers for Affordable Health Care says a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is good news for people who gained coverage as well as for Maine's health care infrastructure.
"We always tend to talk about the consumers or the people who are gaining coverage, but it's a much bigger picture when you think about the health care providers who are benefiting as well, especially in rural areas of the state," she says.
The report also found that the overall uninsured rate in the U.S. dropped to an all time low of 8% in the first quarter of this year, due in part to coverage available under the Affordable Care Act's online marketplace.
Woloson says she hopes the data will bolster Congressional efforts to extend a temporary increase in subsidies for marketplace plans that were issued under the American Rescue Plan.
