AcademyHealth Stateside - 04/17/2007 (Plain Text Version)In this issue: Census Bureau Revises Number of Uninsured
The U.S. Census Bureau has revised the number of uninsured downward from 15.9 to 15.3 percent of the U.S. population in 2005—approximately 1.8 million fewer than the Bureau had reported in August 2006. Conversely, as a result of the revision the number of Americans who have coverage has been corrected to 249 million as opposed to the 247.3 million that had been previously reported. While, for the most part, the effect of this revision on state estimates is not sizable, new estimates have resulted in decreases in the uninsured that vary between 0.3 percent to greater than 1 percent. This revision occurred as the Census Bureau, working with researchers at the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), discovered an editing problem with the health insurance data that has been in place since the Current Population Survey converted to a computerized instrument in 1995. Some people who reported coverage were wrongly edited to not have coverage in the final data; however, the problem has now been corrected. According to Howard Hogan, Census Bureau associate director for demographic programs, the impact on health insurance trends is small and remains relatively constant from one year to the next. Revised figures for 2004 and 2005 are already available on the Census Web site. Revised data for 1995 to 2003 will be available with the release of the new 2006 data in August. Questions regarding these new changes can be directed to SHADAC at the University of Minnesota. Please contact Karen Soderberg at shadac@shadac.org or 612-624-4802.
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