The number of Americans without health insurance continues to drop, according to Gallup figures.
The polling firm, which conducts quarterly surveys on the subject, announced that the uninsured rate has dropped to 11.4 percent in the second quarter of 2015, down half a percentage point from a rate of 11.9 percent in the first quarter of the year.
The uninsured rate has fallen nearly 6 percent from a high of nearly 18 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, shortly before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's provisions mandating coverage was put in place at the beginning of 2014.
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The rise in coverage has been driven largely by sharp increases for minority and low-income populations. The uninsured rate has dropped 9.6 percent among Hispanics, 8.9 percent among African-Americans and 9.9 percent among those with household incomes below $36,000.
But generally all demographic segments have shown increased rates of coverage. The uninsured rate has dropped by 4.5 percent among whites, 3.5 percent for those making between $36,000 and $90,000 and 2.2 percent among those making more than $90,000.
The spike in coverage has mostly come from people buying self-funded plans or enrolling in Medicaid, Gallup said. Since the end of 2013, the percentage of adults below the age of 65 covered by self-funded plans has risen from 17.6 percent to 20.9 percent while the percentage covered by Medicaid has gone from 6.9 percent to 9.5 percent.
Gallup predicts that the uninsured rate will continue to decline in coming years but less dramatically than it has in the past 18 months. Those who remain without insurance, it notes, "are likely the hardest to engage."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
