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

This brief provides an annual update to comparisons of uninsurance estimates from four federal surveys¹:

• 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, we present current and historical national estimates of uninsurance along with the most recent available state-level estimates from these surveys. We also discuss the main reasons for variation in the estimates across the different surveys.

Download a PDF of the Comparing Federal Government Surveys Brief.

Last year’s brief with data from 2017 can be accessed here.

¹ Another federal survey that provides estimates of the uninsured is the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which provides uninsurance estimates for the adult population 18 years and over nationally and among states.