The share of U.S. adults without health insurance remained virtually unchanged in 2015, although it is overall about 5 percentage points lower than before major provisions of Obamacare went into effect, a new Gallup poll shows.
Nearly 12 percent of Americans lacked coverage in the final quarter last year, the same uninsured rate as during the year’s first quarter, according to the poll released Thursday morning. The uninsured rate ticked down slightly during the third quarter, to 11.6 percent.
Right before the Affordable Care Act’s big insurance expansions through Medicaid and the online insurance marketplaces were fully rolled out, the U.S. uninsured rate hovered around 17.5 percent but then declined dramatically as people started getting coverage for the first time.
The Obama administration hope to further drive down the uninsured rate next year by convincing Americans who have resisted buying coverage to purchase it. Officials have about three and a half weeks left during the current open enrollment season.
Hispanics and blacks have seen the most marked improvements in having health insurance under the healthcare law. Hispanics’ uninsured rate was close to 38 percent at the end of 2013 but now stands at 31 percent. Similarly, the uninsured rate among blacks declined by 7.4 percentage points during the same time period. Still, higher uninsured rates remain among both minority groups compared to whites.
Low-income Americans also have seen the largest improvements in being insured compared with middle and upper-income Americans. Among those with an annual household income of $36,000 or less, the uninsured rate declined 8.8 points since the end of 2013.
