Number of Americans without health insurance has fallen, study says

Federal researchers reported today that the number of Americans without health insurance had declined substantially in the first quarter of this year, the first federal measure of the number of uninsured Americans since the Affordable Care Act extended coverage to millions of people in January, The New York Times reports.

The number of uninsured Americans fell by about 8 percent to 41 million people in the first quarter of this year, compared with 2013, a drop that represented about 3.8 million people and that roughly matched what experts were expecting based on polling by private groups like Gallup. The survey also measured physical health but found little evidence of change.

[UPDATE: Kaiser Health News is reporting that roughly 1.6 million Illinois residents, or 12.7 percent of its population, did not have coverage last year. A similar number, 12.8 percent, were uninsured in 2012. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided a slightly different percentage of the uninsured, 12.4 percent, for last year of number to the Sun-Times.]

Read more here.

The full report is here.