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2024 NHIS Data Early Release: Q2 (April – June) Estimates Show Uninsurance Remained Stable While Many Shifted from Public to Private Coverage
November 14, 2024:On November 8, 2024, The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released quarterly estimates of health insurance coverage from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) covering the second quarter (April – June) of 2024.
This blog post covers this newly released Q2 NHIS data, including relevant changes in health insurance coverage compared to the same period the year prior, April – June 2023. We also delve into coverage changes by various breakdowns, including by age, race and ethnicity, and poverty level.
NHIS Data Begin to Show Medicaid Unwinding Impact on Coverage
These newest data from the NHIS are some of the first from this survey to show significant changes in coverage coincident with the Medicaid unwinding (the state-level resumption of normal Medicaid eligibility redetermination procedures in April 2022 that had been put on hold during the COVID-19 public health emergency). We will continue to monitor quarterly NHIS early release data to track changes in coverage during the unwinding.
Changes by Age
Between Q2 2023 and Q2 2024, rates of uninsurance remained stable across all measured age groups, at:
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7.6% among all ages
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9.1% among the nonelderly (age 0–64)
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4.6% among children (age 0–17), and
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10.8% among nonelderly adults (age 18–64)
There were concurrent and offsetting changes in public and private coverage over the same period. Among the nonelderly population, public coverage fell 3.6 percentage points (PP) to 26.6%, private coverage rose 2.8 PP to 66.3, and Exchange-based private coverage rose 1.7 PP to 6.0%.
Among nonelderly adults, public coverage fell 3.7 PP to 21.1%, private coverage rose 3.2 PP to 70.3%, and Exchange-based private coverage rose 2.1 PP to 7.1%.
Among persons of all ages, only public coverage had a statistically significant change, falling 2.8 PP to 39.0%.
There were no statistically significant changes in coverage among children, and coverage remained statistically unchanged at 42.0%, 55.2% and 2.9% for public, private, and Exchange-based private coverage, respectively.
Changes by Race and Ethnicity (nonelderly adults)
Rates of health insurance coverage and uninsurance were statistically unchanged among all measured groups by race and ethnicity except for nonelderly, non-Hispanic White adults. Among that group, the share with public coverage fell 5.0 PP to 17.2%, the share with private coverage rose 3.8 PP to 77.6%, and the share uninsured was statistically stable at 7.5%.
Changes by Poverty Level (nonelderly population)
There were fewer statistically significant changes by poverty level among the nonelderly population compared to changes by age group.
Among those with incomes in the range of 100%–200% of the federal poverty level (FPL), the share who were uninsured increased 4.1 PP to 15.4%.
Public coverage fell among those with incomes above 400% FPL, decreasing 2.0 PP to 7.0%.
Rates of uninsurance were statistically unchanged across measured poverty level groups, and coverage rates also held steady among the 0–100% FPL, 100–200% FPL, and 200–400% FPL groups.
Notes
All changes and differences described were statistically significant based on two-sided t-tests at the 95% level of confidence, indicating that these changes were likely to reflect true changes in the population given the available data. Lack of statistically significant changes does not indicate certainty that there was no true population change, but rather that any true population change was not detectable with the available data.
The presented estimates represent the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population.
