The uninsured rate dropped to 16.1 percent in the Jan. 2-19 poll, from 17.3 percent in December, according to the Gallup- Healthways Well-Being Index.
The ability to extend health care to most of the nation's 48 million uninsured will be a main measure of success for the 2010 health-care law. The people benefiting most so far appear to be those who are unemployed, where Gallup said the uninsured rate fell 6.7 percentage points.
"The unemployed remain the subgroup with the highest uninsured rate at 34.1 percent, but the initial decline among this group suggests the health-care law may be working as intended for unemployed adults," Jenna Levy, a methodologist at Gallup, wrote in the report.
The uninsured rate also fell more for nonwhites and for those 35- to 64-years-old. Gallup said it couldn't determine whether the declines were attributable to PPACA or to broader trends.
