Uninsured numbers fall during first quarter of 2014 due to ACA enrollments

In the first three months of 2014, the number of uninsured Americans dropped to 41 million, down from 48.6 million in 2010, according to an Early Release of Estimates report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report, culled from data from the National Health Interview Survey, covers the period from January to March 2014. It estimates that 3.7 million people obtained coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance exchanges. The Obama administration, which tracked ACA enrollment through the end of the first enrollment period in April, put the total number of enrollees at eight million.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Office of the Actuary projects that the number of uninsured Americans will decrease from 45 million in 2012 to 23 million in 2023 as a result of coverage expansions associated with the ACA.

Other key findings of the study are as follows:

• 61.8% of all Americans under age 65 (165.6 million) were covered by private health insurance plans.
• 18.4% of adults aged 18-64 were uninsured 17.1% had public health plan coverage.
• Among adults aged 19-25, the percentage of uninsured decreased from 26.5% in 2013 to 20.9% in the first 3 months of 2014.