Small Area Health Insurance Estimates

About SAHIE

The Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) program was created to develop model-based estimates of health insurance coverage for counties and states. Data on health insurance coverage for counties are not available elsewhere, since the American Community Survey has only recently begun asking questions on this topic. Our primary focus is to produce a consistent set of nation-wide estimates for sub-state areas, such as counties. The program builds on the work of the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program.

We recently released 2005 COUNTY estimates of people with and without health insurance coverage by:

• Ages 0-64, 18-64 and 40-64;
• Sex;
• People of all incomes and people at or below 200 percent or 250 percent of the poverty threshold;
• Ages 0-18, at or below 200 percent of poverty; and
• Measures of uncertainty of the estimates.

We also recently released 2005 STATE estimates of people with and without health insurance coverage by:

• Ages 0-64, 18-64, 40-64 and 50-64;
• Sex;
• All Races, White not Hispanic, Black not Hispanic, and Hispanic;
• People of all incomes and people at or below 200 percent or 250 percent of the poverty threshold;
• Ages 0-18, at or below 200 percent of poverty; and
• Measures of uncertainty of the estimates.

This research is partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). The CDC have a congressional mandate to provide screening services for breast and cervical cancer to low-income, uninsured, and underserved women through the NBCCEDP. Most state NBCCEDP programs define low-income as 200 or 250 percent of the poverty threshold. For the programs that use definitions other than 200 or 250 percent, program representatives have elected to receive information for one of these two thresholds.

We welcome your feedback as we continue to research and improve our estimation methods. The SAHIE program's age model methodology and estimates have undergone internal U.S. Census Bureau review as well as external review. See the SAHIE review page for more details and a summary of the comments and our response.

The SAHIE program models health insurance coverage by combining survey data with population estimates and administrative records. Our estimates are based on data from the following sources:

• The Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS);
• Demographic population estimates;
• Aggregated federal tax returns;
• Food stamp participation records;
• County Business Patterns;
• Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) participation records; and
• Census 2000.