Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/AllisonCook

The number of uninsured Americans increased by 3.4 million between 2004 and 2006, despite improving economic conditions. In the first four years of the decade, during a period of economic recession, the number increased by 6.0 million. The dominant factor in both periods was a decline in employer-sponsored insurance coverage. Although the recent decline was less than that experienced from 2000 to 2004, growth in public coverage was small, and the number of uninsured people increased by 1.0 million children and 2.4 million adults. Employer coverage declined most for self-employed or small-firm workers, in the South, and among noncitizens.

DC fares better than the nation as a whole in the share of its population that is uninsured. Lower rates of employer-sponsored coverage are more than offset by higher rates of public coverage. The District's relatively generous Medicaid eligibility standards, and the DC HealthCare Alliance, a locally funded coverage program, contribute to the high share of publicly insured residents. Although all low-income individuals are eligible for either Medicaid or the Alliance, some 66,000 residents remain uninsured. These are among the findings of this data brief on insurance status in DC by age, employment, income, family status, and health status.

On August 28, 2007, the Census Bureau reported that the number of nonelderly uninsured had increased by 2.1 million in 2006. Of the 2.1 million non-elderly uninsured, 1.4 million were adults and 710,000 were children (age 18 and under). In this paper we show that children experienced declines in employer-sponsored coverage at all income levels. The largest growth in uninsured children (48%) occurred among those in middle-income families (between 200 and 399% of poverty) because there was no increase in Medicaid and SCHIP to offset the decline in employer sponsored coverage.

In July 2007, bills to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program were passed in both the House and the Senate. One question that has been raised is how well the bills target low-income children. In this brief, Genevieve Kenney and colleagues estimate that the proportion of children below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) covered by the bills is 70% or higher. The share of uninsured children below 200 percent of the FPL who would gain coverage is estimated to be even higher (78 to 85 percent).

The Maine Health Care Access Foundation funded this profile of Maine health insurance coverage. According to data from the Current Population Survey, 124,000 Maine residents did not have health insurance during the 2004–2005 period. The majority (84%) of uninsured people were adults. Just over half of Maine residents who were uninsured came from low-income families residents. Low-income young adults (ages 19–34) were particularly at risk for being uninsured, and one-quarter lacked coverage. Over 86,000 of Maine's uninsured people were workers. Forty-seven percent of this uninsured group were low-income, over half (55%) were employed by firms with fewer than 25 workers, and just over two-thirds worked in industries with low rates of job-based health coverage. Over two-thirds (67%) of Maine's uninsured people came from families with one or more full-time worker, while another 19 percent are from families with a part-time worker.

This brief uses the 2005 Current Population Survey to examine national patterns of coverage among families with SCHIP eligible children. Key findings are that: close to 2 million uninsured children are eligible for SCHIP, the majority of SCHIP enrollees could not be enrolled in an employer plan that covers their parents, and almost 40% of SCHIP enrollees lives with an uninsured parent. This implies that federal funding will have to be increased substantially to cover the remaining eligible but uninsured children and that many children stand to lose coverage altogether if federal funds are inadequate to meet existing program needs.

This data brief documents the decline in health coverage from employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) for low-income adults and children between 2000 and 2004 and how this varied across states. During this period, uninsurance rates for low-income children fell by more than 2 percentage points, because Medicaid and SCHIP coverage expanded to offset the reduction in ESI. Without public programs serving as the same coverage safety net, uninsurance rates for low-income adults increased nearly 3 percentage points in the same period. The data brief shows that public coverage offset the reduction in ESI for children in states with large and moderate reductions in ESI.

This study examines trends in insurance coverage by geographic area and by subgroups such as age, ethnicity, income, and firm size. It also analyzes differences in the types of insurance that people have in large cities compared to rural communities and small cities throughout Missouri.

This chart book provides detailed information on health insurance coverage in Missouri for 2003-2004 using descriptive tables and charts. The figures illustrate who the uninsured are and the tables provide information on health insurance coverage by key social and economic determinants.

This report examines changes in Missouri’s health insurance coverage between 2000-2004. During this period the state experienced a recession followed by a period of slow economic growth. The paper presents extensive data on the relationships between employment, employer-sponsored insurance, and uninsurance through the use of demographic variables between the years 2000-2004. It also provides a broad overview of how individual states are confronting the nationwide challenge of constraining health care costs. It offers a timely and much-needed view to a range of policies, as well as their potentials and their costs.

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