S.C. Show Slight Dip in Uninsured

The number of uninsured South Carolina residents has dropped about 10 percent in the past year, according to a new survey.

A Gallup survey estimated the state's uninsured rate at 16.8 percent in June, down from 18.7 percent in 2013. If the estimate holds up for the rest of the year and is confirmed by government data, it would be the lowest uninsured rate in the state in many years.

"We had hovered around 20 percent for far too long," said Sue Berkowitz, director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center. "It's going in the right direction but it can go a whole lot further."

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey of almost 89,000 people nationally showed all 50 states with shrinking numbers of uninsured. States that expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act and opted to run their own online insurance marketplaces saw even bigger reductions.

President Barack Obama and advocates of the 2010 health care law say the survey is one of several showing the law has made a dent in uninsured rates.

"Millions of people have gained coverage because of the ACA, and millions more could if the remaining states did the right thing and expanded Medicaid," White House spokeswoman Kaelan Richards said.

States that have expanded Medicaid and created their own marketplaces for residents to shop for private health insurance — key pieces of the Affordable Care Act — lowered their uninsured rate by 25 percent on average, according to the Gallup survey. States that did one or neither of those things saw an average reduction of 12 percent.

South Carolina did not expand Medicaid eligibility to more lower-income adults and did not create its own online marketplace. Instead, it uses the federal government's marketplace, HealthCare.gov.

About 146,000 people in South Carolina found health insurance on HealthCare.gov during the six-month open enrollment period, according to federal data released in May.

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