| One in Six U.S. Adults Without Health Insurance |
| Thursday, 23 July 2009 15:00 | |||
 Washington, D.C., July 2009 – As congressional lawmakers debate healthcare reform legislation, partly aimed at expanding coverage to the uninsured, Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data for June reveal that 16.0% of American adults are currently without health insurance.
The June 2009 data encompass more than 29,000 daily tracking interviews of Americans aged 18 and older. Trend data show a small but measurable uptick in the percentage of uninsured adults over the last year and a half. The percentage uninsured averaged 14.8% among the approximately 350,000 adults interviewed in 2008, and rose to 16.2% among the 178,000 adults interviewed in the first six months of this year. In the months before November 2008, the percentage without health insurance ranged from a low of 13.9% to a high of 15.2%. From November 2008 through May 2009, Gallup found increases in the percentage of Americans reporting that they did not have coverage – with the percent uninsured reaching a high of 16.6% in May, before dropping down to 16.0% in June. The latest official estimate of healthcare coverage from the U.S. Census Bureau is for 2007, and reveals that 15.3% of all Americans (including children) are without insurance. This translates into the oft-cited figure of 46 million Americans. The Census figures show that those under 18 are more likely to be insured than those 18 and older, and extrapolations of the Census data suggest that the percentage of adults aged 18 and older without insurance in 2007 would be close to 17%. Given Gallup's estimate that the percentage uninsured has risen by about a percentage point in the first half of 2009 compared to 2008, it would not be surprising if the Census figures for 2009, when available, show an increase in the percentage that are uninsured compared to earlier years. With an aggregated sample of more than 29,000 interviews in June, Gallup is able to report an up-to-date indication of segments of the adult population with the highest percentage uninsured. At 41.5%, Hispanic Americans are, by a significant margin, the demographic segment of the adult population most likely to be uninsured. Non-Hispanic black Americans are also significantly more likely than non-Hispanic white Americans to be uninsured, 19.9% vs. 11.6%. There is a strong relationship between age and income and health insurance coverage, with younger and low-income Americans significantly more likely to be uninsured than others. In fact, the two groups with the highest uninsured rates, other than Hispanics, are Americans who make less than $36,000 per year and those aged 18-29, with 28.6% and 27.6% uninsured, respectively. Those aged 65 and older, and thus eligible for Medicare, are among the least likely to be uninsured, at 3.6%. High-income Americans, making $90,000 or more annually, also have high rates of health insurance coverage, with only 4.5% uninsured -- far below the national average of 16.0%. In terms of region, those in the South and West are more likely than Americans in the East and Midwest to be uninsured. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is the first and largest survey of its kind, with 1,000 calls a day, seven days a week. It is the official statistic for Well-Being in America, giving a daily measure of people's well-being at the close of every day, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health as not only the absence of infirmity and disease but also a state of physical, mental, and social well-being. For additional information, go to www.well-beingindex.com. SOURCE: Gallup
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