EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, OCTOBER 4, 1999 (MONDAY)
Public Information Office CB99-189
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD)
e-mail: pio@census.gov
Jennifer A. Campbell
301-457-3242
Increase of 1 Million Uninsured People, Census Bureau Says
An estimated 44.3 million people in the United States, or 16.3 percent of the
population, had no health insurance in 1998 -- an increase of about 1 million
people since 1997, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau reported today.
The proportion of the uninsured population was statistically unchanged
from the previous year.
"Those more likely to lack health insurance continue to include young
adults in the 18- to 24-year-old age group, people with lower levels of
education, people of Hispanic origin, those who work part time and people
born in another country," said Jennifer Campbell, author of Health Insurance
Coverage: 1998.
The status of children's health-care coverage did not change significantly
from 1997 to 1998, with 11.1 million, or 15.4 percent, of all children under
age 18 uninsured.
Other highlights from the report include:
- Based on comparisons of two-year averages (1997-98 versus 1996-97) the
proportion of the population without health insurance fell in eight
states (Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio
and Tennessee) and rose in 16 others (Alabama, Alaska, California, Illinois,
Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania,
South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming).
- Children 12-to-17 years of age were slightly more likely to be without
health-care coverage (16.0 percent) than those under age 12 (15.1 percent).
- About one-half (47.5 percent) of poor full-time workers did not have
health insurance in 1998.
- The Medicaid program insured 14.0 million poor people, but about one-third
of all poor people (11.2 million) had no health insurance.
- The proportion of people without health insurance ranged from 8.3 percent
among those in households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more, to
25.2 percent among those in households with less than $25,000 in income.
- A higher proportion of the foreign-born population (34.1 percent) was
without health insurance than of the native population (14.4 percent).
- The proportion without health insurance was higher for Hispanics
(35.3 percent) than for non-Hispanic Whites (11.9 percent).
Data are from the March 1999 Current Population Survey. Statistics from sample
surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling errors.
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