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Obamacare working? Americans without health insurance at lowest level in years

Health care
Health care

NIT – Obamacare may be accomplishing its goal of lowering the US uninsured rate, as fewer Americans are without health insurance since 2008.

According to a new poll from Gallup, the uninsured rate dipped to 15.6% in the first quarter of 2014, a 1.5-percentage-point decline from the fourth quarter of 2013. Gallup said that the uninsured rate is now at the lowest level recorded since late 2008.

The goal of the Affordable Care Act – sometimes called Obamacare – was to increase the percentage of Americans with health insurance coverage. Within the first quarter of 2014, that goal has been attained, as Gallup statistics show that the uninsured rate fell consistently, from 16.2% in January to 15.6% in February to 15.0% in March. And within March, the rate dropped more than a point, from 15.5% in the first half of the month to 14.5% in the second half.

The uninsured rate for every major demographic group declined in the first quarter of 2014, Gallup reported. The uninsured rate for lower-income Americans dropped 3.2 points to 27.5% — the largest decline within any key subgroup — while the uninsured rate for blacks fell 3.3 points to 17.6%. Hispanics remain the subgroup most likely to lack health insurance, with an uninsured rate of 37.0%, though their rate dropped 1.7 points in the first quarter.

The open enrollment period to purchase healthcare coverage through the state and federal marketplaces closed on March 31.  President Barack Obama announced on April 1 that 7.1 million Americans have signed up for health insurance plans through federal and state-run marketplaces.

Gallup conducted more than 43,500 interviews with U.S. adults from Jan. 2 to March 31, 2014, as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

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