Periods Without Insurance Trends Downward

In April, The New England Journal of Medicine examined trends in the incidence and duration of periods without health insurance.

This report compares two data sets from the "Survey of Income and Program Participation" by the U.S. Census Bureau. The first data set includes 25,946 persons from the years 1983 through 1986 and the second 40,282 persons from the years 2001 through 2004.

The findings:

• Incidence of uninsured periods is rising over time. Specifically, the likelihood of losing health insurance coverage during a 12 month period has increased from 19.8% to 21.8%.
• The groups with the greatest increases in probability of losing insurance include children, lower income groups, and the unhealthy.

  

• Fortunately, when people experience periods without insurance the duration is decreasing. Long term periods without insurance (24+ months) are showing the greatest declines, especially among the "at risk" populations.

  

Comment:

While this research does not consider the most recent economic downturn, the overall findings are still positive. High risk populations such as children, uneducated and the sick are less likely to have long term uninsured periods and as a result may place less stress on the system. This may likely be the result of higher awareness and desire to apply for government sponsored programs such as Medicaid. Over time, utilization and subsequent spending of government programs has shown dramatic increases.

For a free copy of this report, simply contact Cooper Research by clicking on the "contact us" link.

[ return to top ]