With the release of new insurance coverage estimates from surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), SHADAC has updated our annual “Comparing Federal Government Surveys that Count the Uninsured” brief.

The brief provides an annual update to comparisons of uninsurance estimates from four federal surveys:

• The American Community Survey (ACS)
• The Current Population Survey (CPS)
• The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Household Component (MEPS-HC)
• The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)

In this brief, SHADAC presents current and historical national estimates of uninsurance along with the most recent available state-level estimates from these surveys (where possible). We also discuss the main reasons for variation in the estimates across the different surveys as well as possible reasons for incomparability of estimates across and within the surveys.

Due to the substantial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on federal survey data collection and production, this year the brief also includes a brief overview of the unique challenges faced by each agency conducting the four surveys due to pandemic-related disruptions, how the agencies addressed and compensated for these challenges, and what these impacts mean in terms of utilizing survey data on health insurance coverage for 2020.

Download a PDF of the Comparing Federal Government Surveys Brief.

Last year’s brief with data from the 2020 collection year, and certain 2019 collection-year data, can be accessed here.