Hoover Institution - Facts on Policy - Health Insurance II: Trends and Characteristics of the Uninsured

FACTS ON POLICY: Health Insurance II: Trends and Characteristics of the Uninsured

In 2006, roughly 15 percent of the population, or 44 million people, did not have health insurance coverage. This represents the number of people who were uninsured at the time of interview.

Conversely, 251 million people were covered under either private or government health insurance or some combination of the two. Of the insured, 77 percent are covered by private insurance.

Since 1987, when 13 percent of the population was uninsured, the percentage of uninsured has been on the rise. The rate of uninsured people peaked at 15 percent in 1997 and has remained relatively flat since then, although among the different age groups, the uninsured rate of adults aged 18 to 64 has risen slightly, while the uninsured rate of children under 18 has declined at a greater rate during this period.

• Of the uninsured adults (ages 18 to 64), roughly 28 percent is unemployed.

• Large numbers of middle class and upper-middle class do not have health insurance. Close to 40 percent of the uninsured population—over 17 million people—have household annual incomes of $50,000 or more; 19 percent have annual incomes of over $75,000.

• Hispanics had the highest rate of uninsured: 33 percent. Whites had the lowest rate of uninsured—11 percent, while the uninsured rate among Asians and Blacks was 13 and 16 percent, respectively.

• Young adults had higher rates of uninsured—30 percent for those aged 18 to 24 and 27 percent for those 25 to 34—while children under 18, at 9 percent, had the lowest.

• In 2006, 44 percent of non-citizens were uninsured, compared to 13 percent of the native-born.

Figure 1
Percent of uninsured at the time of interview, by age group (1997-2006)

Figure 2
Percent of people with private or public health insurance coverage, by age group ( 1997-2006)