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.)