Nationwide, the uninsurance rate among non-elderly adults (ages 18-64) in the first three quarters of 2018 was 13.0%, statistically unchanged from 12.7% in the same period in 2017.
This finding is based on new health insurance coverage estimates for Q1-Q3 2018 from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). These estimates were released by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) as part of the NHIS Early Release Program and are the first available coverage estimates for 2018 from a federal survey.
Uninsurance and Public and Private Coverage Rates Remained Stable for Nearly All Groups in 2018
The new NHIS estimates show that uninsurance rates, as well as rates of public and private coverage, were statistically unchanged across age, race/ethnicity, and most income groups between the first three quarters of 2017 and the first three quarters of 2018. Figure 1 shows levels of health insurance coverage by type among non-elderly adults overall across this time period.
Changes in Coverage Type among Some Subgroups
Among non-elderly adults with incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL), the rate of private coverage fell to 19.9% in the first three quarters of 2018 from 25.6% in the first three quarters of 2017 (Figure 2). The rates of uninsurance and public coverage among this group remained statistically unchanged over the same period.
Non-elderly adults with incomes between 100% and 138% FPL also saw a change in coverage type, with uninsurance among this group increasing from 68.7% in the first three quarters of 2017 to 73.6% in the first three quarters of 2018. The rates of private and public coverage among this group remained statistically unchanged over the same period.
Increase in Uninsurance in the Midwest Region
The rate of uninsurance among non-elderly adults in the Midwest[1] increased from 9.5% in the first three quarters of 2017 to 11.0% in the first three quarters of 2018 (Figure 3). This change was larger among non-elderly adults in the East North Central[2] region, a subset of the Midwest region, where uninsurance increased from 8.9 % to 10.6% over the same period. No other coverage changes occurred in the Midwest region over this period, and no other regions experienced a significant change in coverage type.
Note: No state-level coverage estimates were released for the first three quarters of 2018, although NCHS released 11 state-level estimates for the same period of 2017 and 38 state-level estimates for the same period of 2016. Detailed Regions were the lowest level of geography for which estimates were released for the January through September 2018 Early Release report.
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 2018 estimates are for the months of January to September 2018 and are based on a sample of 61,484 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
Terlizzi, EP, Cohen, RA, & Martinez, ME. February 27, 2019. “Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January–September 2018.” National Center for Health Statistics: National Health Interview Survey Early Release Program. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/Insur201902.pdf.
[1] The Midwest region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin; the Northeast region includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont; the South region includes Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia;
and the West region includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
[2] The East North Central region includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.