VISIT STATE HEALTH COMPARE
Publication
Health Insurance Literacy Memo and Resources
While millions of Americans have newly gained health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there is evidence that coverage alone does not necessarily translate into access to health care. This memo provides background information on health insurance literacy, summarizes the research around current consumer knowledge, and offers recommendations for marketplaces on how to build on it.
Additionally, the State Network has compiled a library of health insurance literacy materials developed by four marketplaces.
A PDF version of this memo can be downloaded HERE.
Blog & News
2015 Health Insurance Coverage Estimates from the NHIS & CPS
August 11, 2016:For the first time 2015 national level uninsurance estimates are available from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS).
Highlights
National Health Interview Survey
According to the NHIS, 9.2 percent of people of all ages nationwide lacked health insurance in the first quarter of 2015 (January-March). This is a 3.9 percentage-point decrease in uninsurance from 13.1 percent for the same period in 2014. The 2014-2015 decrease is larger than the 2013-2014 decrease of 1.7 percentage points (from 14.8% to 13.1%).
Although both the 2014 and 2015 estimates measure coverage after the Affordable Care Act (ACA), interviews for the 2014 estimate were conducted when the first open enrollment period was still underway and when the Medicaid expansion had only been in place for a few months. In contrast, by the time the 2015 interviews were finished, two open enrollment periods had taken place, and the Medicaid expansion had been established for over a year.
For more information on the NHIS estimates, read the NCHS brief.
Current Population Survey
Similar to the NHIS, the CPS shows a 3.0 percentage-point decrease (from 13.6% to 10.6%) in the point-in-time uninsured rate from 2014 (February-April 2014) to 2015 (February-April 2015). Because the CPS first measured point-in-time coverage in 2014, there are no historical year-over-year changes to which we can compare the 2014-2015 change.
For more information on the CPS estimates, read the NCHS comparison brief.
State-Level 2015 CPS Coverage Estimates Available Soon
The great news is that at this relatively early date we can use the CPS micro-data to create state-level 2015 coverage estimates. SHADAC will be posting these estimates on its website at www.shadac.org in early October.
For more information on these NHIS and CPS estimates, read the NCHS comparison brief.
Publication
2014 Health Insurance Coverage Estimates: SHADAC Webinar Featuring U.S. Census Bureau Experts
Podcast
Video for iPod
MP3 128 kbps
MP3 64 kbps
Presentation Materials
Click here to access the presentation slides.
Click here to access the event transcript.
Event Description
On this webinar, SHADAC researchers and Census officials discuss the 2014 state health insurance coverage estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS).The speakers present results from both the ACS and CPS and guide users in working with and accessing the estimates.
SHADAC Resources
2014 ACS Tables: State & County Uninsurance Estimates
Infographic: Health Insurance Coverage in 2014 - Estimates from the ACS
Using Recent Revisions to Federal Surveys for Measuring the Effects of the Affordable Care Act (Brief)
Non-Federal Surveys Measuring Health Insurance Coverage (Brief)
Comparing Errors in Medicaid Reporting across Surveys: Evidence to Date (Journal Article)
Measurement Error in Public Health Insurance Reporting in the American Community Survey: Evidence from Record Linkage (Journal Article)
Census Bureau Resources
Health Insurance Coverage Measurement in Two Surveys (Census Blog)
Health Insurance Estimates: Guidance on When to Use Each Survey
Health Insurance Measurement: Differences by Data Source (Infographic)
Technical Meeting on Income Poverty & Health Insurance (Archived Video and Transcript)
Publication
Location, Location, Location: Leveraging Interactive Maps, Administrative, and Census Data to Find and Describe the Remaining Eligible for Coverage in the Health Insurance Marketplaces
Presentation by Brett Fried at the 2015 Joint Statistical Meetings in Seattle, WA, on August 11, 2015.
Publication
SHARE Grant Awards, 2014
The State Health Access Reform Evaluation (SHARE) is a National Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) created to support the evaluation of health policy reform at the state level and develop an evidence-based resource to inform health reform efforts in the future. This document provides an overview of the most recent grant recipients.
