FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2001 Public Information Office CB01-133 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-1037 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division 301-457-3242 New Census Bureau Research Finds More People With Health Insurance Than Previously Reported The Commerce Department's Census Bureau said today it will revise its methodology to estimate the number of people with and without health insurance. Research indicated that when follow-up questions were used, about 8 percent of those previously classified as not having health insurance reported that they were in fact insured. This change will occur when estimates for 2000 are released next month. Had this methodology been used last year, the number of people without health insurance in 1999 would have been 39.3 million, down from the 42.6 million published in September 2000. Prompted by findings in other household surveys, the Census Bureau added new health insurance questions in the March 2000 Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) to ascertain whether people who responded "no" to a series of broad, standard questions on health insurance coverage were actually uninsured. The results of the research will be released in a paper to be presented at an American Statistical Association meeting in Atlanta at 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 7. "Following extensive testing and evaluation by Census Bureau staff, we believe that including follow-up verification questions results in more complete and accurate estimates of the population covered by health insurance," said William G. Barron Jr., the Census Bureau's acting director. "Future releases of health insurance estimates will be based on answers to questionnaires that have the verification questions." A timeline and fact sheet on the modification of the CPS health insurance question is attached. The estimate of health insurance coverage for 2000, based on the March 2001 Current Population Survey, will be released in September. -X- CPS Health Insurance Modification Timeline/Fact Sheet December 1998 -- Census Bureau staff members attend an interagency health insurance conference in which the Urban Institute reports excellent results from using verification questions on the 1997 National Survey of America's Families. Other agencies also report favorable results. Agencies that sponsor health insurance surveys are urged to consider verification questions as a way to reduce health insurance coverage underreporting. Spring/Summer 1999 -- Census Bureau staff conducts tests of health insurance questions and includes verification questions in the test; results look favorable. Summer/Fall 1999 -- The tested health insurance verification questions are adapted to the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the new instrument, with the verification questions, is tested and approved for March 2000 administration. November 1999 -- Congress enacts a new law that provides the Census Bureau with funds to improve CPS state estimates of uninsured children. That law includes a provision that improved estimates should include an "appropriate verification element." Conversations with Congressional staff (who attended the December 1998 conference) indicated that this provision refers to the verification questions proposed for the March 2000 CPS. March 2000 -- CPS Annual Demographic Supplement is fielded with new verification questions. September 2000 -- March 2000 results (for 1999) are published, without the verification questions (at this point, those data had not been processed or evaluated). February 2001 -- March 2000 data file, with verification questions, is approved for analysis. May 2001 -- Evaluation of data is complete; research paper for annual meeting of the American Statistical Association (ASA) on the CPS verification questions is drafted. June 2001 -- Census Bureau staff recommends that health insurance coverage estimates use verification question; Census Bureau management concurs. July 2001 -- Press release describing new procedures is released; ASA paper posted on Census Bureau Internet site. August 7, 2001 (planned) -- ASA paper presented in Atlanta, Ga. September 2001 (planned) -- New March 2001 CPS health insurance estimates for 2000 released; report describes changes and presents 1999 and 2000 estimates calculated both ways to enable trends over time to be accurately measured. (The data set will allow all users to compute an estimate using the previous methodology, if desired.)
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