With just weeks left before the deadline to sign up for health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, new polling numbers find that the number of the uninsured in the country continues to fall.
The uninsured rate for Americans is down, on track to be the lowest quarterly level measured since 2008 — and it's likely the result of PPACA.
That's the latest word from Gallup, who found in its Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index that the rate currently stands at 15.9 percent. It was 17.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.
See also: CBO lowers PPACA enrollment projections
"This drop could be a result of the ACA, which aims to provide healthcare coverage to more Americans through multiple provisions, including federal and state healthcare marketplaces where Americans can purchase health insurance coverage at competitive rates," Gallup said in its analysis.
The uninsured rate for most major demographic groups dropped in 2014 so far. The percentage of uninsured Americans with an annual household income of less than $36,000 has dropped the most — by 2.8 percentage points— to 27.9 percent since the fourth quarter of 2013, while the percentage of uninsured blacks has fallen 2.6 points to 18.3 percent.