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About NCHS
Health Insurance and Access to Care
Health Insurance Data
Access to Care Data
Health Insurance and Access to Care Data Sources
Challenges and Future Opportunities
TThe CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is the nation's principal health statistics agency, providing data to identify and address health issues. NCHS compiles statistical information to help guide public health and health policy decisions.
Collaborating with other public and private health partners, NCHS employs a variety of data collection mechanisms to obtain accurate information from multiple sources. This process provides a broad perspective to help us understand the populations' health, influences on health, and health outcomes.
Health insurance coverage is an important determinant of access to health care. Uninsured children and non-elderly adults are substantially less likely to have a usual source of health care or a recent health care visit than their insured counterparts. The major source of coverage for persons under 65 years of age is private employer-sponsored group health insurance. Private health insurance may also be purchased on an individual basis, but it costs more and generally provides less coverage than group insurance. Public programs such as Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program provide coverage for many low-income children and adults.
NCHS' National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) provides three types of measures of lack of health insurance coverage: uninsured at the time of the interview, uninsured at least part of the year prior to the interview, and uninsured for more than a year at the time of the interview. In addition, the NHIS reports state-level estimates of uninsured at the time of interview, public coverage, and private health insurance coverage for the 41 states.
Data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) show:
Source: National Health Interview Survey, 2007.
Source: National Health Interview Survey, 2007.
NHIS data on health insurance coverage for children under 18 years of age show:
Access to care is important for prevention, for prompt and continuing treatment of illness and injury, and to avoid possible hospitalization. Indicators of access to care include the extent to which persons have a place they usually go for medical care, and in what setting patients receive their care (for example, whether care for non-urgent conditions is sought from a physician's office rather than an emergency department).
Clinical experts note that with access to timely and appropriate ambulatory care patients may be able to prevent illnesses, control acute episodes, or manage chronic conditions to avoid exacerbation or complications of those conditions.
Data from NHIS in 2007 show that Hispanic persons were less likely than non-Hispanic blacks or non-Hispanic whites to have a usual place to go for medical care.
Source: National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2001-02, 2005-06.
Data from the National Health Care Surveys suggest that people who lack insurance or have worker's compensation, capitated private insurance, or Medicaid coverage may have difficulty gaining access to office-based physicians.
NCHS employs a variety of data collection mechanisms to obtain accurate information from multiple sources. They include:
National Center for Health
Statistics
3311 Toledo Road
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Phone:
1-800-232-4636
nchsquery@cdc.gov
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333, U.S.A
Tel: (404) 639-3311 / Public Inquiries: (404) 639-3534 / (800) 311-3435