Who has health insurance?

Overall, insurance coverage declined slightly from 2017 to 2018

·      91.5 percent of Americans had coverage for all or part of 2018, compared with 92.1 percent in 2017

·      The decrease was due largely to a 0.7 percent drop in the number of people covered by Medicaid

Most Americans rely on private insurers for their health insurance

·      218.8 million people had coverage through a private insurer in 2018, while 111.3 million were covered by a public plan

·      About 55 percent of those with private insurance obtained it through their employer, with the rest either buying it directly, through a state or federal exchange, or the TRICARE program

·      Among those with public coverage, 18.5 percent obtained it through Medicaid, 17.5 percent through Medicare, and 1 percent through the VA or CHAMPVA programs.  

Age is a major factor in determining both the likelihood that an individual has health insurance and whether the insurance is public or private

·      People 65 and over had the highest coverage rate (99.1 percent), followed by children under the age of 19 (94.5 percent) and adults age 19 to 64 (88.3 percent)

·      Among those over 65 with insurance, 94.1 obtained it through a public plan (primarily Medicare). By contrast, 17.6 percent of adults age 19-64, and 35.7 percent of children under 19 had public coverage 

Insurance coverage varies with race and Hispanic origin. Coverage rates were:

·      Non-Hispanic White: 94.6 percent

·      Asian: 93.2 percent

·      White: 91.8 percent

·      Black: 90.3 percent

·      Hispanic (any race): 82.2 percent

States vary widely in their percentages of uninsured residents

·      States with the highest percentage of uninsured: Texas (17.7), Oklahoma (14.2), Georgia (13.7), Florida (13.0), Arizona (12.6)

·      States with the lowest percentage of uninsured: Hawaii (4.1), Rhode Island (4.1), Vermont (4.0), District of Columbia (3.2), Massachusetts (2.8)