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Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2021

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Report Number: P60-278

Introduction

This report presents statistics on health insurance coverage in the United States based on information collected in the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC).

Highlights

  • More people were insured in 2021 than 2020. In 2021, 8.3 percent of people, or 27.2 million, did not have health insurance at any point during the year, representing a decrease in the uninsured rate and number of uninsured from 2020 (8.6 percent or 28.3 million).
  • In 2021, private health insurance coverage continued to be more prevalent than public coverage, at 66.0 percent and 35.7 percent, respectively.
  • Of the subtypes of health insurance coverage, employer-based insurance was the most common, covering 54.3 percent of the population for some or all of the calendar year, followed by Medicaid (18.9 percent), Medicare (18.4 percent), direct-purchase coverage (10.2 percent), TRICARE (2.5 percent), and VA and CHAMPVA coverage (1.0 percent).
  • Overall, public coverage increased between 2020 and 2021. In 2021, 35.7 percent of people held public coverage for some or all of the year, marking a 1.2 percentage-point increase from 2020.
  • Between 2020 and 2021, the rate of Medicaid coverage increased by 0.9 percentage points to cover 18.9 percent of people.
  • The uninsured rate among children under the age of 19 decreased 0.6 percentage points to 5.0 percent between 2020 and 2021, driven in part by an increase in public coverage.
  • In 2021, 7.9 percent of full-time, year-round workers had public health insurance, up 1.8 percentage points from 2020. Among less than full-time, year-round workers, the percentage with public coverage increased 1.6 percentage points to 22.6 percent during this period.

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Tables

Health Insurance Detailed Tables

Information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions is available at https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/techdocs/cpsmar22.pdf [PDF - <1.0 MB].

The Census Bureau reviewed this data product for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and approved the disclosure avoidance practices applied to this release. CBDRB-FY22-355.

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Page Last Revised - November 15, 2022
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