Health Insurance, Good News | featured news

More Americans got health insurance coverage in 2011, as young adults jumped onto their parent’s health insurance plans, the U.S. government said Wednesday. More also got public health insurance under the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Many states have expanded eligibility for, and simplified access to, the children's Medicaid program. This has helped shrink the number of uninsured children from 6.9 million in 2008 to 5.9 million in 2010. Experts say the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care overhaul that requires states to maintain income eligibility levels and discourages other barriers to coverage, has played a key role in the improvement.