--- title: Uninsured Americans Drop by 8.8 Million People in 2014 description: There were no significant changes in the poverty rate or the average household's income last year canonical: https://time.com/4036307/number-of-uninsured-americans-dropped-by-8-8-million-people-in-2014/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-16T15:42:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:49.013Z article:section: Politics og:title: Number of Uninsured People Dropped by 8.8 Million in 2014 og:description: Officials credited the Affordable Care Act for much of the change og:url: https://time.com/4036307/number-of-uninsured-americans-dropped-by-8-8-million-people-in-2014/ 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: Number of Uninsured People Dropped by 8.8 Million in 2014 twitter:description: Officials credited the Affordable Care Act for much of the change twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Number of Uninsured Americans Dropped by 8.8 Million People in 2014 > 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. ## Video: Sleep Expert Says Typical Work Day Is 'Torture' [Watch (HLS stream): Sleep Expert Says Typical Work Day Is 'Torture'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/s12Tl0P7.m3u8) (1:18)  _Published 2015-09-09. An Oxford University researcher says forcing ourselves to work before 10 a.m. doesn't line up with our bodies' circadian rhythms._  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Sep 16, 2015 3:42 PM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Sep 16, 2015 3:42 PM UTC 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](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/us/politics/census-bureau-poverty-rate-uninsured.html?emc=edit%5Fna%5F20150916&nlid=72919783&ref=headline). 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. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/us/politics/census-bureau-poverty-rate-uninsured.html?emc=edit%5Fna%5F20150916&nlid=72919783&ref=headline)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4036307/number-of-uninsured-americans-dropped-by-8-8-million-people-in-2014/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4036307/number-of-uninsured-americans-dropped-by-8-8-million-people-in-2014/"},"headline":"Number of Uninsured Americans Dropped by 8.8 Million People in 2014","datePublished":"2015-09-16T15:42:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:57:49.013Z","description":"Officials credited the Affordable Care Act for much of the change","url":"https://time.com/4036307/number-of-uninsured-americans-dropped-by-8-8-million-people-in-2014/","keywords":["Health Care","poverty"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"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/4036307/number-of-uninsured-americans-dropped-by-8-8-million-people-in-2014/","name":"Number of Uninsured Americans Dropped by 8.8 Million People in 2014"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Sleep Expert Says Typical Work Day Is 'Torture'","description":"An Oxford University researcher says forcing ourselves to work before 10 a.m. doesn't line up with our bodies' circadian rhythms.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/s12Tl0P7/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-09T14:29:48.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/s12Tl0P7.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4036307/number-of-uninsured-americans-dropped-by-8-8-million-people-in-2014/","duration":"PT1M18S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4036307/number-of-uninsured-americans-dropped-by-8-8-million-people-in-2014/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```