Random Samplings

Health Insurance: Most Have Coverage

Written by: David Johnson, US Census Bureau

New figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau show that most of us – 256.2 million, or 83.7 percent – did, in fact, have health insurance coverage during the entire 2010 calendar year. However, that left 49.9 million, or 16.3 percent, who did not.

Dig a little deeper into the numbers and we see so many key factors that influence whether one ended up in the “have” or “have-not” camp.

One key factor is age. Because of Medicare, coverage for people 65 and older is virtually universal, with only 2.0 percent lacking coverage in 2010. On the other hand, for young adults 18 to 24, the situation was vastly different, as 27.2 percent were not covered.

The uninsured rate is higher among those with lower incomes and lower among people with higher incomes. In 2010, despite the existence of programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, 26.9 percent of people with annual incomes of less than $25,000 had no health insurance coverage.

Meanwhile, 8.0 percent of those in households with incomes of $75,000 or more were uninsured.

Minorities and the foreign-born population also were more likely to lack coverage. The uninsured rate stood at 18.1 percent for Asians, 20.8 percent for blacks and 30.7 percent for Hispanics. Twenty percent of naturalized citizens were uninsured, while noncitizens had the highest uninsured rate of all, as about half (45.1 percent) lacked health insurance. The percentages of non-Hispanic whites and native-born people who lacked coverage were 11.7 percent and 13.8 percent, respectively.

The Census Bureau has published numbers on health insurance coverage since 1987. Each year, we ask roughly 78,000 households about whether they had any coverage during the previous calendar year in the Current Population Survey. This is the source of the numbers used as the nation determines the course to follow on this issue. The information you give in answering our surveys helps policymakers, advocacy groups and think tanks understand the extent of the lack of health insurance.

To access all of our health insurance data, visit our website.

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American Community Survey Takes Our Nation’s Demographic Pulse Each Year

Written by: James Treat, US Census Bureau

In every census between 1940 and 2000, millions of American households received a “long form”, which contained scores of questions on a wide range of demographic, socioeconomic and housing topics.

Following the 2000 Census, the long form was, in effect, split off from the census and turned into the American Community Survey. The rationale was simple: because our nation changes so rapidly, our communities needed this kind of information on a much more frequent basis − annually, rather than once a decade − in order to make informed decisions about where to build roads, construct schools and locate emergency services. And businesses sought these key data much more often than once every 10 years too for the purposes of site selection and marketing.

Yesterday, the Census Bureau released results from the annual ACS, which cover 2010. The information was collected from almost 2 million housing unit interviews across the country.

The survey offers statistics on more than 40 subjects, such as income, health insurance coverage, commuting to work, educational attainment, language spoken at home, ancestry, selected monthly homeowner costs, the foreign-born population, occupation, and military veterans. The numbers are available for not only the nation as a whole and all of our states and congressional districts, but also for counties and cities with total populations of more than 65,000. Statistics for smaller areas will be available later in the year.

Dig deep into this goldmine of numbers and here are a few of the nuggets you will find:

• Average travel time to work was highest for Maryland (31.8 minutes) and then New York (31.3 minutes). North Dakota had the lowest average travel times (16.1) followed by South Dakota (16.8).
• Real median household income decreased between the 2009 ACS and 2010 ACS in 35 states. For 15 states and the District of Columbia, real median household income in the 2010 ACS was not statistically different from that in the 2009 ACS.
• In 2010, 32 percent of the foreign-born population from Latin America were naturalized citizens. Among counties of birth, Jamaica (61 percent) and Cuba (56 percent) had the highest percent naturalized. Mexico (23 percent) and Honduras (21 percent) were among the countries with the lowest percent naturalized.
• In 2010, the percent of individuals 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree ranged from 17.5 percent in West Virginia to 39.0 percent in Massachusetts. In six states more than one-third of those 25 and over had a bachelor’s degree: Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia.

In October, the Census Bureau will release a set of ACS estimates covering all areas with populations of 20,000 or more, based on data collected between 2008 and 2010. A third set of ACS estimates, covering the 2006-2010 period, will be released in December, providing information for all geographic areas regardless of size.

Nowhere else will one see data on such a wide array of key attributes about our communities. To dig into the data yourself, visit the American FactFinder.

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Health Insurance: Who Has Coverage, Who Doesn’t?

Written by: David Johnson, Chief, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division

In recent months you’ve probably heard figures cited on news broadcasts countless times on the number of people who do not have health insurance. Every year, these figures are released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

So how many of us lack coverage now? In 2009, the number was 50.7 million (16.7 percent of the resident population). Both numbers are up from 2008, when we had 46.3 million without coverage ─ 15.4 percent.

The rate varies widely among different groups. About 12 percent of non-Hispanic whites lacked coverage; for Hispanics, the rate was more than 32 percent. Ten percent of children under 18 lacked coverage, but more than 30 percent of young adults ages 18 to 24 did.

The Census Bureau has published numbers on health insurance coverage since 1987. Notably, 2009 marks the first year in which the number of people with health insurance has declined, as it dropped to fewer than 254 million. This can be attributed, in part, to the fact the percentage of people covered by private insurance ─ usually provided through an employer ─ is now the lowest since that year.

Each year, we ask roughly 78,000 households about whether they had any coverage during the previous calendar year in the Current Population Survey. This is the source of the numbers used as the nation determines the course to follow on this issue. The information you give in answering our surveys helps policymakers, advocacy groups and think tanks understand the extent of the lack of health insurance.

To access all of our health insurance data, visit the Census Bureau Health Insurance Website.

Download report: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance, 2009

View Census Bureau Health Insurance Fact Sheet

View Census: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance data presentation slides

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