Table 1.1. Number and percent of persons without health insurance coverage, by age group: United States, 1997–2002

NOTES: A person was defined as uninsured if he or she did not have any private health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, State-sponsored or other government-sponsored health plan, or military plan at the time of the interview. A person was also defined as uninsured if he or she had only Indian Health Service coverage or had only a private plan that paid for one type of service such as accidents or dental care. The analysis excluded persons with unknown health insurance status (about 1% of respondents). The data on health insurance status were edited using an automated system based on logic checks and keyword searches. For comparability, the estimates for all years were created using these same procedures. The resulting estimates of persons without health insurance coverage are generally 0.1 percentage point lower than those based on both automated and manual editing procedures used for the final data files. The number of uninsured was calculated as the percent of uninsured multiplied by the total population including persons with unknown coverage. The age-specific numbers of uninsured may not add to their respective totals due to rounding error. Age-adjusted estimates for persons under 65 years old for this Healthy People 2010 leading health indicator are adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population using three age groups: under 18 years, 18-44 years, and 45-64 years.

DATA SOURCE: Family Core component of the 1997-2002 National Health Interview Surveys. The estimate for 2002 was based on data collected from January through June.

From January through June 2002, the percent of uninsured persons was 15.9% (38.9 million) for persons under age 65 years, 18.5% (31.8 million) for persons aged 18-64 years, and 9.8% (7.2 million) for children under age 18 years.

The percent of children under age 18 years who lacked health insurance coverage continued to decrease from 13.9% in 1997 to 10.8% in 2001 and 9.8% in January-June 2002 (with a small, insignificant increase in 2000).

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This page last reviewed June 29, 2007