Final answer:
In 2013, approximately 9 million of the 41.3 million uninsured people in the United States were children. The advent of the Affordable Care Act significantly reduced the uninsured rate, with a notable decrease from 20.3% in 2012 to 8.6% by 2020.
Step-by-step explanation:
In 2013, an estimated 41.3 million people in the United States had no health insurance, and around 9 million children were part of the uninsured population, according to DeNavas-Walk, Proctor, and Smith. These children were eligible for but not enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program. The uninsured population included individuals from households with income above the poverty line but whose employers did not provide health insurance, often because their work was temporary or part-time and low-paid. Additionally, about 15 million of the uninsured had income below the poverty line and were not receiving Medicaid.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), which came into full force in 2014, has since then significantly decreased the number of uninsured Americans. In particular, it made sure that people wit6Hh preexisting conditions could no longer be denied health insurance. By 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that the percentage of Americans without insurance dropped from 20.3% in 2012 to 11.5%. The Census reported that by 2020, the share of the population without health insurance had further fallen to 8.6%, marking progress in efforts to expand access to health care.