As of 2018, 27.5 million people in the United States were uninsured, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That number has been on the rise since 2009, when the Affordable Care Act was passed. The ACA was designed to help reduce the number of people without health insurance by making it easier for them to get coverage. However, the law has not been successful in achieving this goal. In fact, the percentage of Americans who are uninsured has been slowly rising since 2016. There are a number of reasons for this increase. First, the ACA’s individual mandate – which required everyone to have health insurance or pay a fine – was repealed in 2017. This made it more affordable for people to choose not to have insurance coverage. Second, many employers have stopped offering health insurance benefits to their employees due to the high cost of premiums. Finally, premium prices continue to rise faster than wages, making it difficult for many people to afford coverage even if they want it. As a result of these factors, an estimated 27.5 million Americans were without health insurance in 2018 – up from 26 million in 2017 and 24 million in 2016