Data from the National Health Interview Survey confirmed what many independent polling firms have also found: the number of poor uninsured Americans has dropped significantly since the implementation of Obamacare. Sabrina Tavernise
reports:
In 2014, the federal poverty threshold was $23,850 for a family of four and $11,670 for a single person. Near poor was defined as those families living on incomes between 100 and 200 percent of poverty, or $23,850 to $47,700.
In all, about 32 percent of poor Americans were uninsured in 2014, down from 39 percent in 2013. The share of near poor Americans who were uninsured declined to 31 percent from 39 percent. The share of all other Americans who lacked health insurance declined to 9 percent from 11 percent.
The law was also found to have had varying impacts on people across racial lines.
The survey also registered a sharp decline in the share of black Americans who were uninsured, which fell by nearly a third to 13.5 percent from 18.9 percent in 2013. [...]
While black Americans under the age of 65 made the biggest gains, Hispanics in the same age group also benefited substantially, with the share of uninsured dropping by nearly 17 percent from 2013 to 25.2 percent. The share of whites who were uninsured fell to 9.8 percent, down from 12.1 percent in 2013.
That 5.4 percent drop among black Americans was "the largest annual change for any racial or ethnic group since the survey began in 1997."