Uninsured Rate Shrinking, Census Data Shows

He notes that a provision of the PPACA related to young adults remaining on their parent's health insurance coverage "seems to be showing through in the data" as more young people take advantage of this opportunity.

Attracting so-called "young invincibles" into the health insurance market is key to helping insurers spread risk as PPACA requirements to cover pre-existing conditions go into effect.

Zuckerman points to stability in the employer-sponsored health insurance market as among the indicators of an improved economy. While acknowledging that the recovery has "been tepid by historical standards," he says there has been some stability and employment has improved, which means fewer people are losing their insurance coverage.

He adds that the break in the upward trend in the number of uninsured also reflects improvement in the economy. "This is definitely a turnaround. Coming out of the recession it looks the number of people without coverage has stopped increasing."

As might be expected, household income influenced the uninsured rate with incomes of less than $50,000 accounting for 46.9% of uninsured. Households with more than $75,000 in income accounted for only 7.8% of the uninsured.