--- title: Obamacare: Barack Obama Affordable Care Act Reducing Uninsured description: Data for Democrats to tout ahead of midterm election canonical: https://time.com/2976166/obamacare-health-care-reform-affordable-care-act-uninsured/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-11T13:08:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:05:48.369Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obamacare: Barack Obama Affordable Care Act Reducing Uninsured og:description: Data for Democrats to tout ahead of midterm election og:url: https://time.com/2976166/obamacare-health-care-reform-affordable-care-act-uninsured/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0590884d0c22678/69869b67810bbb69c5c92906/obamacare.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Ronnie Cabrera, Dailem Delombard and Maylin Lezcano holding Lucas Cabrera sit with an insurance agent from Sunshine Life and Health Advisors as they try to purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at the kiosk setup at the Mall of Americas og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obamacare: Barack Obama Affordable Care Act Reducing Uninsured twitter:description: Data for Democrats to tout ahead of midterm election twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0590884d0c22678/69869b67810bbb69c5c92906/obamacare.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Studies Show Obamacare is Reducing the Ranks of Uninsured > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Jul 11, 2014 1:08 PM UTC  People buying health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at the Mall of Americas on Jan. 15, 2014 in Miami. People buying health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at the Mall of Americas on Jan. 15, 2014 in Miami. Joe Raedle—Getty Images  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Jul 11, 2014 1:08 PM UTC A growing body of research indicates that the number of American adults who lack health insurance has dropped sharply, by about [eight](http://hrms.urban.org/quicktakes/Number-of-Uninsured-Adults-Continues-to-Fall.html) million, since the health care reform law’s individual mandate went into effect early this year. Three independent studies from the [Commonwealth Fund](http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/files/publications/issue-brief/2014/jul/pdf%5Fcollins%5Fgaining%5Fground%5Ftracking%5Fsurvey%5Fapril%5Fjune%5F2014%5Fexhibits.pdf), Gallup, and the Urban Institute recently found that roughly a quarter of people who were uninsured last year now have health insurance. The proportion of people without insurance dropped across all income groups and [ethnicities](http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/files/publications/issue-brief/2014/jul/pdf%5Fcollins%5Fgaining%5Fground%5Ftracking%5Fsurvey%5Fapril%5Fjune%5F2014%5Fexhibits.pdf). But the largest declines were seen among the poor and Latinos, for whom the uninsured rate plummeted from 36% in the summer of 2013 to 23% by the spring of 2014, according to the Commonwealth Fund. In its survey of 45,000 U.S. adults, [Gallup](http://www.gallup.com/poll/172403/uninsured-rate-sinks-second-quarter.aspx,) found that the uninsured rate for Americans over 18 has fallen to 13.4%, the lowest level since the group began tracking the metric in 2008\. The previous low point was 14.4% in the third quarter of that year. The drop in the ranks of the uninsured marks a significant step toward the President Barack Obama’s goal of universal health insurance coverage in the U.S. and will be welcome news to Democrats heading into the 2014 midterm elections. Campaigning against Obamacare has been central to the GOP’s election-year strategy and Republicans have hammered Democrats over the Affordable Care Act’s initially rocky rollout. But the news is unlikely to soften Republican opposition to the law. The GOP-controlled House is already moving forward with a lawsuit against the President over his decision to delay implementation of the so-called employer mandate, a key provision of the law that requires companies with more than 50 full-time employees to provide health insurance. Some in the GOP have accused the President of unilaterally delaying implementation of the measure to avoid hurting Democrats going into the midterm elections. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2976166/obamacare-health-care-reform-affordable-care-act-uninsured/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2976166/obamacare-health-care-reform-affordable-care-act-uninsured/"},"headline":"Studies Show Obamacare is Reducing the Ranks of Uninsured","datePublished":"2014-07-11T13:08:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:05:48.369Z","description":"Data for Democrats to tout ahead of midterm elections","url":"https://time.com/2976166/obamacare-health-care-reform-affordable-care-act-uninsured/","keywords":["Health Care","Obamacare","health insurance","GOP","ACA","Midterms"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0590884d0c22678/69869b67810bbb69c5c92906/obamacare.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0590884d0c22678/69869b67810bbb69c5c92906/obamacare.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ronnie Cabrera, Dailem Delombard and Maylin Lezcano holding Lucas Cabrera sit with an insurance agent from Sunshine Life and Health Advisors as they try to purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at the kiosk setup at the Mall of Americas","caption":"Ronnie Cabrera, Dailem Delombard and Maylin Lezcano holding Lucas Cabrera sit with an insurance agent from Sunshine Life and Health Advisors as they try to purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act at the kiosk setup at the Mall of Americas","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health-care/","name":"Health Care"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2976166/obamacare-health-care-reform-affordable-care-act-uninsured/","name":"Studies Show Obamacare is Reducing the Ranks of Uninsured"}}]}] ```