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Reversing the trend?: understanding the recent increase in health insurance coverage among the nonelderly population
Reversing the trend?: understanding the recent increase in health insurance coverage among the nonelderly population
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Issue paper (Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured)
- Author(s):
- Holahan, John, author
McGrath, Megan, author - Contributor(s):
- Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, issuing body.
Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, issuing body. - Publication:
- Washington, DC : Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, March 2013
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Insurance Coverage -- statistics & numerical data
Insurance Coverage -- trends
Insurance, Health -- statistics & numerical data
Insurance, Health -- trends
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- In the September 2012 release of the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Census Bureau announced that the number of nonelderly without health insurance fell by 1.2 million1 in 2011 over the previous year. This reversal of the trend of rising uninsurance was surprising given the continuing economic effects of the Great Recession that began in 2007. Although the unemployment rate fell and the decline in real incomes moderated in 2011, many effects of the recession continued. Understanding changes in the uninsured requires understanding of broader changes in health coverage. Between 2010 and 2011, the rate of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) was essentially unchanged, but there was an increase in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage. The increase in public coverage led to a decline in the uninsured rate from 18.5 percent in 2010 to 18.0 percent in 2011, and thus 1.2 million fewer uninsured nonelderly Americans. Most of the growth in public coverage and reduction in the number of nonelderly uninsured was concentrated among adults. Among children, coverage was largely unchanged between 2010 and 2011. Understanding coverage changes also requires understanding of underlying population changes. Interestingly, the reduction in the number of uninsured adults in 2011 occurred despite the fact that the size of the low-income adult population grew during this period. Because of job loss and income declines, there were 1.6 million more adults with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL) in 2011 compared to 2010, with a nearly corresponding decrease in the number with incomes. above 400 percent of poverty. Because people with lower incomes are more likely to be uninsured than people with higher incomes, the shift in the income distribution of the population could have led to an increase in the number of uninsured. However, the uninsured rate among the lower income--while still higher than other groups--declined between 2010 and 2011, and the shares covered by public coverage or non-group coverage grew. This shift may reflect declining incomes even within the low-income population, making adults more likely to hit relatively low Medicaid eligibility levels. The changes in coverage between 2010 and 2011 also included a notable change in coverage among adults by age. Since September 2010, the Affordable Care Act has enabled young adults (ages 19-25) to be covered as dependents under their parents’ private insurance coverage. As we also saw between 2009 and 2010, there was a sharp increase in private insurance coverage and decline in the uninsured rate for those age 19 to 25 between 2010 and 2011. Similar changes in health insurance coverage did not occur for other age groups. The patterns of coverage between 2010 and 2011 are in contrast to trends over the past decade and, in particular, during the 2007 to 2010 recessionary period. Over the past decade, the United States experienced an economic recession whose effects lasted from 2000 to 2004, a modest recovery between 2004 and 2007, and a severe decline known as the Great Recession beginning in 2007. In the first recession of this decade, the ESI rate fell sharply, the uninsured rate increased significantly, and the number of uninsured increased from 36.3 million to 41.3 million. Between 2004 and 2007, a period of modest recovery, the rate of ESI continued to decline but more slowly. Although some of this decline was offset by a small increase in public coverage, the uninsured rate still increased modestly and the number of uninsured increased from 41.3 million to 43.4 million. During the most recent recession (2007-2010), ESI fell precipitously, and the uninsured rate increased significantly. The number of uninsured increased from 43.4 million to 49.2 million. As mentioned above, despite the poor performance of several economic indicators in 2011, the number of uninsured surprisingly fell. The rate of ESI was essentially unchanged but there was an increase in public coverage, causing the uninsured rate to fall.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (20 pages, 1 unnumbered page))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101605126 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101605126