--- title: Obamacare: About 90% of U.S. Adults Now Have Health Insurance description: The uninsured rate has fallen under Obamacare canonical: https://time.com/3819233/obamacare-health-insurance-uninsured-rate/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-13T13:42:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:17.214Z article:section: Health og:title: About 90% of U.S. Adults Now Have Health Insurance og:description: The uninsured rate has fallen under Obamacare og:url: https://time.com/3819233/obamacare-health-insurance-uninsured-rate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: About 90% of U.S. Adults Now Have Health Insurance twitter:description: The uninsured rate has fallen under Obamacare twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # About 90% of U.S. Adults Now Have Health Insurance > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=b0fc9a6f-d561-4184-9b4d-4c0dd49535af&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How Health Care Is Changing for 2015 [Watch (HLS stream): How Health Care Is Changing for 2015](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/asBSrQOp.m3u8) (1:23)  _Published 2014-12-17. A focus on preventive care, wellness programs, and insurance updates are the main health care changes coming to employer-sponsored programs in 2015._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 13, 2015 1:42 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 13, 2015 1:42 PM UTC Amost 90% of American adults now have health insurance, according to a [new survey](http://www.gallup.com/poll/182348/uninsured-rate-dips-first-quarter.aspx?utm%5Fsource=Well-Being&utm%5Fmedium=newsfeed&utm%5Fcampaign=tiles) released Monday. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index shows that the uninsured rate has dropped to 11.9% for the first quarter of 2015\. That’s down one percentage point from the previous quarter and down 5.2 percentage points since the end of 2013, when the expansion of coverage under President Obama’s health care reform law went into effect. “The uninsured rate is the lowest since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in 2008,” [Gallup said.](http://www.gallup.com/poll/182348/uninsured-rate-dips-first-quarter.aspx?utm%5Fsource=Well-Being&utm%5Fmedium=newsfeed&utm%5Fcampaign=tiles) The rate of uninsured Americans rose to more than 17% by 2011, and peaked at 18% just a couple years later. It dropped significantly when the health care law was implemented. The survey shows that while the uninsured rate has dropped among all groups, the greatest declines came for lower-income Americans and Hispanics. ## Transcript Employers are on sort of a long term trend of trying to shift more of the costs to their employees, to the people receiving the care. And it's an effort to sort of make health care more efficient. [ MUSIC ] They are sort of divvying up, or differentiating where you get your care. When it comes to something like Telemedicine. Which is where you sort of take a picture of something that's wrong with you and like, or you're curious about. Like a rash or something like that. And send that to your doctor, that's about half the price of going to your primary care doctor. So, it can be cheaper for them, and for you. It's all about being proactive with your health care and sort of knowing. What's going on with your, with your health and how best to, how best to treat whatever it is that needs to be treated. This means you need to sort of be in charge of your health care. You need to know where to go when something happens. It really depends on you. I mean like, if you do not take advantage of the wellness programs, your costs may go up. You can lower your bill and your overall health care spending, and be, if you're a little bit more correct. It, but at the same time, it requires a lot more attention. It requires a lot more work on your part. 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