Census Bureau Report Reveals Health Insurance Statistics

The counts for people with or without health insurance in the United States both rose in 2008, says a report.
Census Bureau Report Reveals Health Insurance Statistics
9/10/2009
Updated:
9/10/2009

The counts for people with or without health insurance in the United States both rose in 2008, according to a report released Sept. 10 by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Those who are insured went from 253.4 million in 2007 to 255.1 in 2008, according to the Bureau’s “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States:2008” report. Uninsured numbers increased to 46.3 million from 45.7 million in the same period, but the percentage of uninsured remained at 15.4 percent.

Within the insured numbers, those covered by private insurers decreased from 202 million to 201 million, while the number of people covered by government health insurance increased from 83 million to 87.4 million during the same period.

The report defines private health insurance as being provided through an employer, union or individual purchase from a private company. Government health insurance includes federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, military health care, CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Plan) and state-provided health plans.

Among the uninsured, children under 18 without health insurance dropped from an 11 percent rate and 8.1 million in 2007 to 9.9 percent and 7.3 million in 2008. This figures are at the lowest since 1987—the first year such comparable data was collected—according to the bureau report.

The bureau data shows the proportion of people without insurance coverage decreases as the income level goes up. Of the 46.3 million uninsured, 24.5 percent had a household income of $25,000 or less; 22.3 percent had a household income of $50,000 or more, with 7.8 percent of these having an income above $75,000.

For people born in the U.S., the uninsured rate remained at 12.9 percent but rose in number from 33.3 million to 34 million. Uninsured among the foreign-born population remained statistically unchanged: 33.5 percent and 12.3 million in 2008.

The largest number of uninsured among the foreign-born population were classified as noncitizens—which include illegal immigrants—at 9.5 million.

Among the races, Asians showed an increase in their rate of uninsured, from 16.3 to 17.2 percent. Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, American Indian and others all showed a rate decrease, the biggest being among Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders groups, with a 2.9 percent rate reduction from 2007-2008.

The report, found at www.census.gov, additionally contains 2008 income and poverty rates and numbers. It also explains the data collection process and statistical margin-of-error information.