The United States Census Bureau’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) program developed model-based health insurance coverage estimates for states and counties that will provide consistent and comparable estimates for all areas. The current model has shown that a variable indicating people who are of Hispanic origin is a strong predictor for people without health insurance coverage.

The number of people in the United States without health insurance has grown from about 31 million (13 percent) in 1987 to 45 million (16 percent) in 2003 (DeNavas-Walt et al., 2004). Hispanics were more likely to be uninsured than non-Hispanic Whites, 33 percent and 11 percent, respectively (DeNavas-Walt et al., 2004).