National uninsured rate continues to drop

The share of Americans lacking health coverage hit its lowest level in years, according to a new national poll (Source: “Rate of uninsured falls to new low at 12.9%,” Associated Press via Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 7, 2015). 

The new Gallup survey found that 12.9 percent of the adult population remained without coverage in the last three months of 2014, the lowest share since the pollster began tracking the uninsured in 2008.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index found that the uninsured rate dropped 4.2 percentage points over the past year as the health law’s major coverage expansion went into effect. Other analysts have estimated that those gains translate to at least 10 million uninsured people getting coverage. A year ago, 17.1 percent of adults were uninsured.

“The Affordable Care Act has accomplished one of its goals: increasing the percentage of Americans who have health insurance coverage,” Gallup concluded.