New Data Available for Researchers

New Data Available for Researchers

New data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) on health insurance coverage is available for use. Last month, NCHS published "Health Insurance Coverage: Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January-September 2005." The report presents three key measures of health insurance coverage: persons who currently lack coverage; persons uninsured at any point in time in the previous year; and, persons who have experienced lack of coverage for more than one year. In the first three quarters of 2005, 14.1 percent of persons were uninsured at the time of the interview, 17.7 percent had been uninsured for some part of the previous year, and 10.1 percent had been uninsured for more than a year.

NCHS publishes each of these estimates quarterly, within six months of the close of each quarter. Complete calendar-year data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) are released during the summer following the end of each data collection year. Currently, users can access calendar year 2004 questionnaires, data and related documentation
on the web at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhis/quest_data_related_1997_forward.htm. The health insurance segment provides a full range of data items addressing health insurance, including type of health care coverage and managed care arrangements, that can be analyzed in relation to health behaviors, health care access and utilization, poverty status, and a variety of demographic variables. 

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