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More than 27 Million US Residents Lacked Health Insurance Coverage in 2018

ElitePersonalFinance
Last Update: September 7, 2021 • Financial News •

    The U.S. Census Bureau released its 2018 income, poverty, and health insurance coverage reports on September 10, 2019. Researchers found that nearly 27.5 million U.S. residents lacked health insurance coverage in 2018 – up 1.9 million from the 25.6 million seen in 2017. It was the first year-over-year increase since the Affordable Care Act was introduced in 2014.

    Health Insurance Coverage

    For all or part of 2018, 91.5% of U.S. residents had health insurance coverage – a decline from the 92.1% seen in 2017.

    In a conference call with reporters, Laryssa Mykyta – chief of the Health and Disability Statistics branch at the U.S. Census Bureau – said a “decline in public coverage certainly contributed” to a decline in overall health insurance coverage. Uninsured children under the age of 19 also increased 0.6% to 5.5% overall, leading Mykyta to say, “For children, we saw a similar pattern where there was a decline in public coverage and no statistical change in private coverage.”

    South Dakota saw the largest increase in uninsured residents, rising from 9.1% to 9.8%. Conversely, Wyoming saw the largest drop – decreasing from 12.3% to 10.5%.

    Private health insurance covered 67.3% of the population, while employer-based plans remained the most common, encompassing more than 55%. By age, 99.1% of adults age-65 or older had some form of health insurance coverage in 2018, while 94.5% of children under the age of 19 had coverage and 88.3% of adults age-19 to 64 had coverage.

    Income and Poverty

    Real median earnings (adjusted for inflation) grew 3.4% year-over-year to $40,247. Overall median household income increased 0.9% to $63,179, while family median income increased 1.2%. It was the fourth straight year family households saw an increase.

    By race, Asian-Americans had a median household income of $87,194, followed by Whites at $70,642, Hispanics at $51,450, and Blacks at $41,361. By region, Northeast residents had a median household income of $70,113, West residents at $69,520, Midwest residents at $64,069, and Southern residents at $57,299. The amount of full-time, year-round workers also increased by 2.3 million.

    The poverty rate also declined in 2018, falling from 12.3% to 11.8%. In the fourth consecutive year, the poverty rate has declined, and since 2014, the rate has decreased from 14.8% to 11.8%. There were approximately 38.1 million people in poverty in 2018 – nearly 1.4 million less than in 2017. Poverty rates for children under 18 are from 17.4% to 16.2%, while poverty rates for adults age 18 to 64 declined from 11.7% to 10.7%. For individuals over the age of 64, the figure remained roughly flat at 9.7%.

    By subgrouping, poverty rates declined for women, non-Hispanic Whites, Northeast, Midwest, and West residents. It also declined for people without a disability and individuals with some college education. Conversely, the poverty rate for individuals age-25 or older without a high school diploma increased by 1.4% to 25.9%.

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