Gov't Survey Confirms Slowdown In US Health Insurance Gains

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WASHINGTON (AP) - A new government survey confirms that the nation's progress in getting more people covered by health insurance slowed significantly this year, a finding that tempers a historic achievement of the Obama administration.

About 1.3 million fewer people were uninsured the first three months of this year, driving the uninsured rate to a new record low of 8.6 percent. That's according to the National Health Interview Survey, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, that progress is a fraction of the earlier gains seen under President Barack Obama's health care law. When the law's big expansion got underway in 2014, the number of uninsured people went down by nearly 9 million.

Obama's signature law has cut the uninsured rate by nearly half, but about 27 million people remain uninsured.

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