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New Data on Health Insurance Coverage by Race/Ethnicity Added to State Health Compare
June 28, 2024:State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) has added two new racial/ethnic population groups to our measures of health insurance coverage available on State Health Compare.
Using micro-data from the American Community Survey (ACS), we were able to add health insurance coverage measures for American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations. Specifically, SHADAC has added insurance coverage data for AIAN and NHPI populations at both the national and state level (when sample size permits) from the years 2008-2022. Estimates for these groups are also available by age and poverty status.
This update now allows users to download estimates of insurance coverage for all of the minimum race categories for data collection outlined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which are: American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN), Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (NHPI), and White.
| Uninsured adults (19-64) in the US, 2021-2022 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race/ethnicity | Age | 2021 | 2022 | Difference | * | |
| AIAN | 19-64 | 24.5% | 22.2% | -2.4 | * | |
| African-American / Black | 19-64 | 13.4% | 12.1% | -1.3 | * | |
| Asian | 19-64 | 7.2% | 6.7% | -0.5 | * | |
| Hispanic / Latino | 19-64 | 24.4% | 22.8% | -1.5 | * | |
| NHPI | 19-64 | 12.1% | 13.6% | 1.5 | ||
| Other / Multiple Races | 19-64 | 11.2% | 10.5% | -0.7 | * | |
| White | 19-64 | 8.2% | 7.4% | -0.7 | * | |
| All | 19-64 | 12.0% | 11.2% | -0.9 | * | |
| * Significant difference between years. Source: SHADAC analysis of the 2021-2022 American Community Survey. |
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In this analysis, we used this newly available data from State Health Compare to examine differences in uninsurance from 2021 to 2022 by race/ethnicity for adults ages 19-64. Over this period, the overall uninsured rate for non-elderly adults dropped nearly a percentage point, reaching 11.2%. The largest drop in uninsurance was seen among AIAN adults, lowering by 2.4 percentage points. Hispanic and Black adults also saw improvements in coverage of greater than one percentage point (1.5 and 1.3 percentage points, respectively). More modest gains in coverage were reported by adults who were White, Asian, and Other/Multiple races.
Significant decreases were seen consistently across populations by race/ethnicity except for the NHPI adult population, which did not see this same decrease in uninsurance. While estimates were limited by sample size and changes were not significant, uninsurance rates for this group increased from 12.1% to 13.6%. These concerning rates of uninsured NHPI adults contrasted with the overall trend of decreased uninsurance rates and thus warrant further observation.
While encouraging to see a trend of decreasing uninsurance amongst non-elderly adults, disparities in insurance coverage between racial/ethnic groups are persistent. For example, in 2022, more than one in five adults were uninsured among both the Hispanic/Latino and AIAN populations. Uninsurance was also high for NHPI and Black adults, at 13.6% and 12.1%, respectively. The substantial differences in coverage between racial/ethnic populations illustrate the ongoing priority of improving health equity, including health care access. We plan to continue monitoring insurance coverage in light of ongoing post-pandemic policy changes. Providing more granular estimates by race/ethnicity will support efforts to understand and reduce disparities in health care access.
