More Than 90% of Americans Have Health Insurance

Roughly 7 million Americans who are waking up with health insurance today woke up without it last year. That from a new report by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics issued today that estimates the number of Americans without coverage has fallen from 36 million in 2014 to 29 million in Q1 of this year; that latter figure is the equivalent of 9.2% of Americans. The New York Times reports that in 2013, right before ObamaCare's "major provisions" kicked in, the percentage was 14.4%. As for the makeup of that 9.2%, 13% of adults 18-64 are without coverage, while just 4.6% of children are, down from 13.9% in 1997.

As a "policy-neutral research organization," lead author Robin Cohen tells USA Today the report doesn't delve into any reasons behind the drop. But an expert on the subject with the Kaiser Family Foundation puts it plainly: "The biggest thing that's going on is the [Affordable Care Act]." Another health care policy expert sees a different factor: employment. "In general, we should fully expect this in an economy that's slowly recovering." Interesting side note: The Times points to a separate Gallup study this week that found only one state—Texas—has a population that is at least 20% without insurance; in 2013 at least 14 states fell into that category. (More health insurance stories.)