New Report Finds Regional, State Differences in Health Insurance Coverage

For Immediate Release: June 25, 2008

Contact: CDC National Center for Health Statistics Office of Communication (301) 458-4800
E-mail: cdcinfo@cdc.gov

State, Regional, and National Estimates of Health Insurance Coverage for People Under 65 Years of Age: National Health Interview Survey, 2004-2006. NHSR Number 1. 24 pp.
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New England had the lowest percentage of uninsured individuals under age 65 in 2004-2006 and the Southwest had the highest, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

Overall, 91.1 percent of New Englanders had some kind of health insurance in 2004-2006. The Southwest had the greatest proportion of uninsured -- 18.2 percent of children and nearly 30 percent of adults.

The report is based on data collected from 240,000 people under age 65 as part of the 2004-2006 National Health Interview Survey.

Findings include:

• Nationally, 67.8 percent of the population under age 65 in the United States had private health insurance, whereas 13.2 percent had insurance through Medicaid or State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and 3.4 percent had other types of public coverage, leaving 16.6 percent uninsured during the 2004-2006 period.
• Nationwide, the proportion of individuals under age 65 who were uninsured for at least part of the year ranged from 10.4 percent in Hawaii to 31.9 percent in Texas.
• Among children under 18 years of age, the percentage who were uninsured ranged from 3.7 percent in Massachusetts to 18.7 percent in Texas.

Data were available for 41 states. Nine states and the District of Columbia had sample sizes that were too small for a meaningful analysis and were excluded from the state-specific analysis.

The report, "State, Regional, and National Estimates of Health Insurance Coverage for People Under 65 Years of Age: National Health Interview Survey, 2004-2006," is available at www.cdc.gov/nchs.

Preliminary national data for 2007 were also released today in a separate report, showing 43.1 million Americans of all ages were uninsured in 2007 (14.5 percent of the population.) This report also shows that 8.9 percent of children under age 18 had no health insurance in 2007 -- the lowest percentage of uninsured children in the past decade.

Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 2007