The uninsured rate has increased since Gallup and Healthways started monitoring U.S. adults’ health insurance coverage status daily in January 2008 as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The rate hovered in the 14% range in 2008, rose to the 16% range in 2009-2010, and ticked up to the 17% range for most of 2011. In 2012, the uninsured rate steadily declined each quarter, but has since increased.

These data were collected in the third quarter of 2013, before the health insurance exchanges — which allow Americans to buy health coverage in a competitive marketplace as required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) — opened on Oct. 1. Thus, the estimate provides a solid baseline from which to measure changes in the uninsured population as the healthcare law is fully implemented.