off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Uninsured Rate Fell in 20 States Last Year
The share of residents without health coverage fell in 20 states last year, Census data released yesterday show, while rising in just one. As our analysis (with state-by-state data) explains, the improvements mostly reflect greater private coverage among young adults — helped by a health reform provision allowing them to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26 — and enrollment increases in public programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Last week, the Census Bureau announced that the number of uninsured Americans
fell by 1.3 million in 2011 and the share of Americans without health insurance fell from 16.3 percent to 15.7 percent, the largest single-year drop since 1999. Yesterday’s data come from a different Census survey, the American Community Survey, which allows for more detailed state-level analysis than last week’s data. But the findings from the two surveys are consistent.
The new data also show that:
- In 34 states, the share of 18- to 24-year-olds with private coverage rose in 2011.
- In 30 states, the share of people enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP rose in 2011.
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