Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2015

September 13, 2016 - Census Bureau

Report Number: P60-257

Jessica C. Barnett and Marina Vornovitsky

This report presents statistics on health insurance coverage in the United States based on information collected in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC) and the American Community Survey (ACS).

Highlights

• The uninsured rate decreased between 2014 and 2015 by 1.3 percentage points as measured by the CPS ASEC. In 2015, the percentage of people without health insurance coverage for the entire calendar year was 9.1 percent, or 29.0 million, lower than the rate and number of uninsured in 2014 (10.4 percent or 33.0 million).
• The percentage of people with health insurance coverage for all or part of 2015 was 90.9 percent, higher than the rate in 2014 (89.6 percent).
• In 2015, private health insurance coverage continued to be more prevalent than public coverage, at 67.2 percent and 37.1 percent, respectively. Of the subtypes of health insurance, employer-based insurance covered 55.7 percent of the population for some or all of the calendar year, followed by Medicaid (19.6 percent), Medicare (16.3 percent), direct-purchase (16.3 percent), and military coverage (4.7 percent).
• Increases in both private health insurance coverage and government coverage contributed to the overall increase in coverage between 2014 and 2015. The rate of private coverage increased by 1.2 percentage points to 67.2 percent in 2015 (up from 66.0 percent in 2014), and the government coverage rate increased by 0.6 percentage points to 37.1 percent (up from 36.5 percent in 2014).
• Between 2014 and 2015, the greatest change in coverage was the change in direct-purchase health insurance, which increased by 1.7 percentage points to cover 16.3 percent of people for some or all of 2015 (up from 14.6 percent in 2014).
• For the second year in a row, the percentage of people without health insurance dropped for every single year of age under 65.
• In 2015, the percentage of uninsured children under age 19 was 5.3 percent. This was a decrease from 6.2 percent in 2014.
• In 2015, the uninsured rate for children under age 19 in poverty, 7.5 percent, was higher than the uninsured rate for children not in poverty, 4.8 percent.
• In 2015, non-Hispanic Whites had the lowest uninsured rate among race and Hispanic origin groups, at 6.7 percent. The uninsured rates for Blacks and Asians were higher than for non-Hispanic Whites, at 11.1 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively. Hispanics had the highest uninsured rate in 2015, at 16.2 percent.
• Between 2014 and 2015, the overall rate of health insurance coverage increased for most race and Hispanic-origin groups. Hispanics had the largest increase (3.6 percentage points), followed by Asians (1.9 percentage points) and non-Hispanic Whites (0.9 percentage points).  The Current Population Survey did not measure a statistically significant difference in the health insurance coverage rate for Blacks between 2014 and 2015.
  
• Between 2014 and 2015, the uninsured rate decreased in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Three states (North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming) did not experience a statistically significant change in their uninsured rate.