Insurance – Uninsured Population (ACS)
The lack of health insurance is considered a key driver of health status.
This indicator reports the percentage of the total civilian non-institutionalized population without health insurance coverage. This indicator is relevant because lack of insurance is a primary barrier to healthcare access including regular primary care, specialty care, and other health services that contributes to poor health status.
Source
Source Description
The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with reliable and timely social, economic, housing, and demographic data every year. The ACS has an annual sample size of about 3.5 million addresses, with survey information collected nearly every day of the year. Data are pooled across a calendar year to produce estimates for that year. As a result, ACS estimates reflect data that have been collected over a period of time rather than for a single point in time as in the decennial census, which is conducted every 10 years and provides population counts as of April 1. The Census Bureau combines 5 consecutive years of ACS data to produce estimates for geographic areas with fewer than 65,000 residents. These 5-year estimates represent data collected over a period of 60 months. Because the ACS is based on a sample, rather than all housing units and people, ACS estimates have a degree of uncertainty associated with them, called sampling error. In general, the larger the sample, the smaller the level of sampling error. Data users should be careful in drawing conclusions about small differences between two ACS estimates because they may not be statistically different.
For more information about this source, including data collection methodology and definitions, refer to the American Community Survey data user’s website.
Methodology
Counts of the population by health insurance status and total area population data are acquired from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Data represent estimates for the 5-year period 2019-2023. Data are aggregate summaries based on 2023 Census Tract boundaries. Health insurance coverage status is classified in the ACS according to yes/no responses to questions (16a – 16h) representing eight categories of health insurance, including: Employer-based, Directly-purchased, Medicare, Medicaid/Medical Assistance, TRICARE, VA health care, Indian Health Service, and Other. An eligibility edit was applied to give Medicaid, Medicare, and TRICARE coverage to individuals based on program eligibility rules. People were considered insured if they reported at least one “yes” to Questions 16a – 16f. Indicator statistics are measured as a percentage of the universe population using the following formula:
For more information on the data reported in the American Community Survey, please see the complete American Community Survey 2023 Subject Definitions.
Data Breakouts Available
- Uninsured Population by Age Group, Total
- Uninsured Population by Race, Total
- Uninsured Population by Race, Percent
- Uninsured Population by Ethnicity Alone
- Uninsured Population by Gender
- Uninsured Population by Age Group, Percent
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