The Evergreen state has been one of Obamacare's biggest boosters, and today it got some good news: Washington's uninsured rate has fallen by 38 percent since the start of the year. Fewer than 9 percent of the state's population now lacks coverage. Via hometown paper the Olympian:
The individual market has grown to more than 327,000 - which was about 81,000 more insured people than were in the individual market on Oct. 1, the date that the Washington Health Benefit Exchange opened for enrollments for 2014 coverage. The individual market included 156,155 people buying private insurance policies through the exchange and 171,286 who bought policies outside the exchange.
....Medicaid is now serving 345,766 people who became newly eligible under the Affordable Care Act. Beth Luce, spokeswoman for the HCA, said data through July 10 showed an additional 190,865 new Medicaid enrollees who were already eligible before federal health care reform.
Washington has embraced Obamacare, but also had a tough time making the law work. I spent a week in Seattle last month learning about how things are going there, and you can read more about that here.
