Forty-two million people were uninsured in the United States in 2013, the year before the implementation of President Obama‘s health care law, according to an annual report from the Census Bureau released Tuesday.
The number represented 13.4 percent of the population.
The Census number is typically the most widely-cited statistic on the number of uninsured in the U.S., but for 2013, the Bureau changed its methodology and questions in the survey, so the report cautioned against comparing the 2013 number to prior years.
The number, however, will be used as a benchmark to compare the effects of the implementation of Obamacare on the number of uninsured when 2014 data are released around this time next year.
Starting on Jan. 1, individuals gained coverage as a result of the law through the expansion of Medicaid and subsidized private insurance.
