The uninsured rate for Americans is down, on track to be the lowest quarterly level measured since 2008—and it's likely the result of Obamacare.
That's the latest word from Gallup, who found in its Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index that the uninsured rate currently stands at 15.9 percent. It was 17.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.
“This drop could be a result of [PPACA], which aims to provide health care coverage to more Americans through multiple provisions, including federal and state health care marketplaces where Americans can purchase health insurance coverage at competitive rates,” Gallup said in its analysis.
The uninsured rate for most major demographic groups dropped in 2014 so far. The percentage of uninsured Americans with an annual household income of less than $36,000 has dropped the most—by 2.8 percentage points—to 27.9 percent since the fourth quarter of 2013, while the percentage of uninsured blacks has fallen 2.6 points to 18.3 percent.
And notably, the uninsured rate among 26- to 34-year olds and 35- to 64-year olds continues to decline, now at 26.6 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively. Though the drop in the uninsured rate is among slowest for young people, it's still progress for the administration, which has made participation in PPACA plans a priority.
But Hispanics, an important group for PPACA participation, are still lagging in insurance enrollment. Hispanics remain the subgroup most likely to lack health insurance, with an uninsured rate of 37.9 percent, Gallup found.
Gallup results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey Jan. 2-Feb. 28, with a random sample of 28,396 adults, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
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