VISIT STATE HEALTH COMPARE
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 State Health Research and Policy Interest Group meeting on June 13, 2015, in Minneapolis, MN.
Publication
Good News from the North: ACA's Enrollment and Coverage Impacts on the Uninsured in Minnesota
Presentation by ELizabeth Lukanen at the 2015 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM), June 14-16, 2015, in Minneapolis, MN.
View a PDF of the presentation slides.
Files
Publication
SHADAC & SHARE Newsletter - December 24, 2014
The SHADAC newsletter contains updates on SHADAC activities, news from the states, resource updates, and blog highlights.
Click on the image below to download a PDF version of this newsletter. Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Publication
State and County Coverage Estimates, 2009-2013 ACS
2009-2013 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates:
Percent Uninsured, Total Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population by County
Click on a state to see state and county health insurance coverage estimates for the pooled years 2009-2013. Counties are searchable by bookmark in each file.
Click here to view estimates for Puerto Rico by municipio.
These estimates come from the 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) via the U.S. Census Bureau’s American FactFinder (AFF) tool. The 5-year ACS is created by pooling together five years of ACS data to produce estimates for areas and subgroups with smaller populations.
About the ACS
The ACS is a household survey that began in 2005 and produces annually updated data on a variety of population characteristics, including health insurance coverage. In total, the ACS surveys approximately three million US households each year. An important feature of the ACS is that it includes a large enough sample for state‐level and sub‐state estimates.
The Census Bureau publishes 1-year estimates for areas with populations of 65,000 or more; 3-year estimates (covering 36 months) for areas with populations of 20,000 or more; and 5-year estimates (covering 60 months) for all statistical, legal, and administrative entities. For an explanation of the various ACS data products see SHADAC Brief #32 “Understanding 1-, 3-, and 5-year ACS Estimates: Summary Tabulations and Public Use Files."
The ACS began asking survey respondents about health insurance coverage during the 2008 calendar year. Specifically, the survey asks respondents about current coverage for each person in the respondent’s household. A person is categorized as “insured” if he or she has coverage at the point in time at which the survey is administered.
How Are these Estimates Different from the Estimates that SHADAC Publishes Using Census Bureau Micro-Data Files?
Two definitions used by the Census Bureau to generate the tabulations above differ from those that SHADAC uses to generate tabulations for the SHADAC Data Center and the RWJF Data Hub. The definitional differences are as follows:
Family
- The Census Bureau defines a family as all related people in a household.
- SHADAC defines a family using a measure called the “Health Insurance Unit” (HIU), which includes all individuals who would likely be considered a family unit in determining eligibility for either private or public coverage.
- To learn more about the HIU, see SHADAC Brief #27, “Defining Family for Studies of Health Insurance Coverage.”
Family Income
- The Census Bureau determines family income as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), which is a definition of poverty used primarily for statistical purposes. For example, FPL is used to estimate the number of Americans living in poverty each year.
- SHADAC determines family income as a percentage of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Federal Poverty Guidelines (FPG), which is a measure used for administrative purposes. For example, FPG is used to determine eligibility for federal programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
- To learn more about the difference between FPL and FPG, click here.
Publication
Implementing Federal Health Reform in the States: Who Is Included and Excluded and What Are Their Characteristics?
Fried, B., Kemmick Pintor, J., Graven, P., & Blewett, L.A. 2014. "Implementing Federal Health Reform in the States: Who Is Included and Excluded and What Are Their Characteristics?" Health Affairs. Published online before print. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.12232
