The number of uninsured people in the U.S. fell below 10 percent in 2015 for the first time. About 9.1 percent of Americans, or about 28.6 million, were uninsured last year, according to federal statistics, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Obama administration is pointing to the latest figures as proof that the changes to the U.S. healthcare system under the Affordable Care Act — an overhaul of the insurance system, new subsidies for low-income people and increased funding to expand Medicaid — are working.
In 2010, the year the ACA was enacted, 16 percent of people were without insurance. This rate fell to 14.4 percent in 2013, the year before the law's major coverage provisions came into effect. In 2014 the rate fell more to 11.5 percent, according to the report.
The year 2015 was "the first year in our nation's history that fewer than 1 in 10 Americans lacked health insurance, and the report documents the progress we've made expanding coverage across the country," said HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell, according to the report.
Despite the continual decrease in uninsured rates since the implementation of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform law, critics say even the improved number is a sign of the ACA's shortcomings. They argue it has required too much expenditure to do too little, according to the report.