--- title: Uninsured Rate Drops to Lowest Point Since 2008 description: A survey shows that a significant number of Americans now have health insurance as the uninsured rate dropped 1.5 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. The findings suggest the Affordable Care Act is succeeding at getting people to sign up for coverage canonical: https://time.com/52294/uninsured-rate-obamacare-affordable-care-act/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-07T19:39:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:08:29.287Z article:section: Politics og:title: Uninsured Rate Drops to Lowest Point Since 2008 og:description: A survey shows that a significant number of Americans now have health insurance as the uninsured rate dropped 1.5 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. The findings suggest the Affordable Care Act is succeeding at getting people to sign up for coverage og:url: https://time.com/52294/uninsured-rate-obamacare-affordable-care-act/ 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: Uninsured Rate Drops to Lowest Point Since 2008 twitter:description: A survey shows that a significant number of Americans now have health insurance as the uninsured rate dropped 1.5 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 7, 2014 7:39 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 7, 2014 7:39 PM UTC The rate of uninsured Americans dropped to 15.6 percent in the first quarter of 2014, its lowest point since late 2008, Gallup [reports](http://www.gallup.com/poll/168248/uninsured-rate-lowest-2008.aspx). The uninsured rate dropped 1.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013, according to Gallup, which interviewed about 28,000 Americans from Jan. 2 to Feb. 28\. The rate has declined for nearly every demographic group, though Hispanics remain the least likely to have health insurance coverage. Gallup’s data show that approximately 3.5 million people have recently gotten coverage, [the Associated Press reports](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US%5FHEALTH%5FOVERHAUL%5FSURVEY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT).  Gallup says that the findings suggest the Affordable Care Act is succeeding at getting Americans to sign up for health insurance coverage. President Barack Obama recently [announced](http://time.com/45867/barack-obama-obamacare-affordable-care-act/) that 7.1 million Americans have enrolled in coverage under the ACA. The Gallup survey did not show a high number of young people signing up towards the deadline, which the Obama administration wanted as healthy young enrollees effective subsidize older Americans involved in the exchanges. The White House recently [announced](http://time.com/48806/final-obamacare-deadline-is-april-15/) that Americans who began but did not complete enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s health exchanges by the March 31 deadline have until April 15 to finish the process. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/52294/uninsured-rate-obamacare-affordable-care-act/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/52294/uninsured-rate-obamacare-affordable-care-act/"},"headline":"Uninsured Rate Drops to Lowest Point Since 2008","datePublished":"2014-04-07T19:39:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:29.287Z","description":"A survey shows that a significant number of Americans now have health insurance as the uninsured rate dropped 1.5 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. 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