Health Insurance Articles
A Glimpse into 2008 Health Care Statistics
2009-07-20
While public and congressional debate swirls around the solution to America’s troubled health care system, the facts about health insurance in 2008 quietly expose the size of the problem, and where the biggest problems areas are.
The statistics in this article are taken from the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) 2008 National Health Care Interview Survey.
The survey found that 14.7% percent of the American people have no health insurance coverage. 43.6 million Americans under the age of 65 are uninsured, 17% of the under 65 demographic. Uninsured people of all ages are now at the highest number in the past ten years, but that number has fluctuated between 38.7 million and 2008’s 43.8 million.
65% of the population has private health insurance. 13.4% of people age 18 to 64 had public health plan coverage, while 68.1% had private health insurance
Age
8.9% of children under 18 are not covered by health insurance; but the number of uninsured children has steadily decreased in the past ten years. In 1997 there were 9.9 million children without health insurance, and in 2008 the number had dropped to 6.6 million. 58% percent of children have private insurance, while 34% are covered by a public health plan.
The number of 18 to 64-year-olds without health insurance has risen from 30.8 in 1997 to 37.1 in 2008. 18 to 24 year olds, with 28.9% of this age group uninsured, were shown to be worse off than 25 to 34 year olds (26.4% uninsured). 13.3% of 45 to 64 year olds have no health care insurance.
There are also slight differences in health insurance coverage based on gender. Between 18 and 44, men were more likely to have no health insurance coverage. After 44 and before 18, that gender gap evens out.
Race
American Indians (according to the census bureau) had the highest rate of uninsured people at 32.1%, followed by Latinos at 30.7% percent of that population, followed by 16% of the African American population and 10.4% percent of the Caucasian population.
Access to doctor’s offices
86.4% of the population had “a usual place to go for medical care,” the definition of which did not include an emergency room.
6.5% percent of the population “failed to obtain needed medical care due to cost,” the highest percentage in ten years, and one that has steadily risen from 4.5% in 1997 to the current rate.
On a related note, the percentage of respondents to the CDC survey who said they had excellent or very good personal health was 66%, the lowest number in ten years.
