11.5 Percent of Under 65-Year-Olds Uninsured in 2020

FRIDAY, Feb. 11, 2022 (HealthDay News) — In 2020, 11.5 percent of people aged younger than 65 years were uninsured, according to a study published Feb. 11 in the National Health Statistics Reports, a publication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Emily P. Terlizzi, M.P.H., and Robin A. Cohen, Ph.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, used data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey to estimate health insurance coverage.

The researchers found that among people aged younger than 65 years, in 2020, 11.5, 64.3, and 26.5 percent were uninsured, had private coverage, and had public coverage, respectively, at the time of the interview. For adults aged 18 to 64 years, the percentage who were uninsured varied from 11.8 to 17.9 percent for those living in large fringe (suburban) metropolitan counties and nonmetropolitan counties, respectively. Compared with those living in Medicaid expansion states, adults aged 18 to 64 years living in non-Medicaid expansion states were twice as likely to be uninsured (20.7 versus 10.3 percent). Among children aged 0 to 17 years, a similar pattern was observed. In Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, the percentage of adults aged 18 to 64 years who were uninsured was significantly higher than the national average of 13.9 percent (19.5, 25.4, 20.3, and 28.1 percent, respectively); in California, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania, the percentages were significantly lower than the national average (11.5, 6.7, 9.0, and 7.7 percent, respectively).

“Generally, people living in Medicaid nonexpansion states, nonmetropolitan counties, and the West South Central region were the most likely to be uninsured,” the authors write.

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