Health Insurance Coverage

The National Center for Health Statistics has released its estimates of health insurance coverage in the United States derived from household interviews conducted under the aegis of the Health Interview Survey. The report is entitled Early Release of Health Insurance Estimates Based on Data From the 2006 National Health Interview Survey.

As an aside, the Census Bureau conducts a similar study, using a different methodology so when comparing insurance coverage over time you have to be careful to make an apples-to-apples comparison.

Top line results:

The study examines data collected from interviews in over 100,000 households nationwide. Some of the highlights include:

• In 2006, there were 43.6 million Americans of all ages who did not have health insurance (at the time of the interview), or 14.8% of the population.
• Among working-age Americans (those ages 18-64), there were 19.8% who did not have health insurance in 2006, a slight increase from 18.9% in 2005.
• Approximately 9.3% of children under the age of 18 did not have health insurance in 2006, a decrease from 13.9% in 1997.
• In 2006, the percentage uninsured at the time of interview among the 20 largest states ranged from 7.7% in Michigan to 23.8% in Texas.

If you are interested in health insurance this report is a must-read.