U.S. Census Bureau
Current Population Reports
Issued August 2007
This report presents data on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States based on information collected in the 2007 and earlier Annual Social and Economic Supplements (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Health Insurance Coverage in the United States
* Both the percentage and the number of people without health insurance increased in 2006. The percentage without health insurance increased from 15.3 percent in 2005 to 15.8 percent in 2006, and the number of uninsured increased from 44.8 million to 47.0 million.
* The percentage of people covered by employment-based health insurance decreased to 59.7 percent in 2006, from 60.2 percent in 2005.
* The percentage of people covered by government health programs decreased to 27.0 percent in 2006, from 27.3 percent in 2005. The percentage and the number of people covered by Medicaid were statistically unchanged at 12.9 percent and 38.3 million, respectively, in 2006.
* The percentage and the number of children under 18 years old without health insurance increased to 11.7 percent and 8.7 million in 2006 (from 10.9 percent and 8.0 million, respectively, in 2005). With an uninsured rate in 2006 at 19.3 percent, children in poverty were more likely to be uninsured than all children.
* The percentage and the number of uninsured Blacks increased (from 19.0 percent and 7.0 million in 2005) to 20.5 percent and 7.6 million in 2006.
* The percentage and the number of uninsured Hispanics increased to 34.1 percent and 15.3 million in 2006.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
The numbers to commit to memory: for 2006, 47.0 million were uninsured, which is 15.8 percent of the population.
These are the standard numbers used by the policy community to express the magnitude of the problem of the uninsured.
Do not be led astray by the opponents of reform who will attempt to divert attention away from the fundamental problem of uninsurance by attacking the credibility of these numbers. Although the survey is designed to count the number of people who were uninsured for the entire year, it may include a few individuals who had forgotten that they were covered (in spite of “really, really” prompts) or a small number who declined to report their coverage. For that reason some suggest that this survey more closely approximates the number of people who were uninsured at a specific point in time during the year, rather than being uninsured for the entire year. But that undercounts those who were not included because they reported that they did have coverage at some time during the year, even if not the entire year.
These are highly credible numbers. Do not dismiss the numbers, but rather discredit and dismiss those who would divert the dialogue away from this intolerable problem.
One of the more disconcerting findings in this survey has to do with the numbers of children who were uninsured. Intensive efforts have been made in recent years to enroll more children in the SCHIP and Medicaid programs. In spite of those efforts, the number of uninsured children increased by over 600,000 in 2006. Our most effective incremental program of covering the uninsured, the SCHIP program, is failing us.
And yet the Bush administration wants to cut the SCHIP program back even more by insisting that states must enroll 95 percent of the lowest-income eligible children before more children could be added, a goal that all state administrators insist is impossible to achieve. Yes, impossible – an admission that these incremental programs can never achieve universal coverage.
And yet our policymakers insist that covering everyone under a national health insurance program is not feasible. Do they have squash rot for brains?!