VISIT STATE HEALTH COMPARE
Blog & News
NHIS: 2018 Uninsured Rates Unchanged from 2017
August 29, 2018:The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released health insurance coverage estimates for Q1 2018 from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) as part of the NHIS Early Release Program. These are the first available full-year coverage estimates for 2018 from a federal survey. Nationwide, the uninsurance rate among non-elderly adults was 12.5% in the first quarter of 2018, statistically unchanged from 12.1% in the same period in 2017.
Uninsurance Remained Stable for Nearly All Groups in 2018
The new estimates show that uninsurance rates were statistically unchanged across age, race/ethnicity, and income groups from the first quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2018.
Decreases in Private Coverage among Non-Elderly Adults with Low Incomes
The rate of private coverage among non-elderly adults (ages 18-64) with incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL) decreased to 21.4% in Q1 2018 from 29.2% in Q1 2017. Rates of public coverage and uninsurance both increased among this group during the same period, though these changes were not statistically significant. No other income groups experienced significant changes in rates of private coverage, public coverage, or uninsurance during this period.
About the Numbers
The above estimates provide a point-in-time measure of health insurance coverage, indicating the percent of persons with that type of coverage at the time of the interview. The estimates are for the months of January to March 2018 and are based on a sample of 19,510 persons from the civilian noninstitutionalized population.
Differences described in this post are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level unless otherwise specified.
For more information about the early 2018 NHIS health insurance coverage estimates, read the National Center for Health Statistics brief.
Citation
Cohen, RA, Martinez, ME, & Zammitti, EP. August 29, 2018. “Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January–March 2018.” National Center for Health Statistics: National Health Interview Survey Early Release Program. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/Insur201808.pdf.
