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FACTS ON POLICY: Health Insurance III: The Long-term Uninsured October 16, 2007
During the past ten years, the number of children who are long-term uninsured has declined by 37 percent. In 2006, 31 million people, or 11 percent of the U.S. population, were long-term uninsured. This reflects an 11 percent increase over the past ten years, though the change varied widely among the different age groups. The number of long-term uninsured children declined by more than a third, while the number of working-age adults who are long-term uninsured increased by one-quarter. Of the 31 million uninsured, the majority—27 million—were adults aged 18 to 64; fewer than four million children were long-term uninsured. Because of public insurance programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, the number of elderly aged 65 or older who are long-term uninsured was relatively low: roughly 200,000, or less than 1 percent of the elderly population. Characteristics of the long-term uninsured (in 2006):
• Only 5 percent of children under 18 were without insurance for more than one year.
• The rate of long-term uninsured among children was roughly one-third the rate of long-term uninsured among working-age adults (15 percent).
• Approximately 33 percent of the unemployed working-age adult population was long-term uninsured.
• By contrast, 14 percent of employed working-age adults were long-term uninsured.
• Less than 7 percent of those with more than a high school education were long-term uninsured.
• By contrast, 25 percent of those who did not have a high school diploma were long-term uninsured.
Related fact: Definition of the uninsured (September 18, 2007) Related fact: Trends and characteristics of the uninsured (October 2, 2007)
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