Number of Uninsured Americans Dropped by 8.8 Million People in 2014

The number of Americans without health insurance dropped by 8.8 million people last year, the Obama administration announced Wednesday.

That brings the total population of uninsured people to 33 million, the New York Times reports. The data, which comes from the Census Bureau’s annual report on income, health insurance and poverty, says the rate of uninsured people went from 13.3 percent in 2013 to 10.4 percent last year. Officials say the Affordable Care Act has driven much of that change.

The decline occurred without any statistically significant change in the average U.S. household’s income. The median income last year was $53,660, according to the Census Bureau.

It also occurred without any significant change in the poverty rate, which was 14.8 percent last year (about 46.7 million people). That’s the fourth year in a row that the percentage of Americans in poverty has stayed largely the same as the year before.

[NYT]