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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Public Health Service

Agency for Health Care Policy and Research

2101 East Jefferson Street, Suite 501

Rockville, MD 20852

BULK RATE

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

PHS/AHCPR

Permit No. G-282

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 

Health Insurance Status of the U.S.

Civilian Noninstitutionalized

Population

For more information on MEPS, call the MEPS

information coordinator at AHCPR

(301/594-1406) or see our “Important

Information and Updates for MEPS Public Use

Data Users” section on the AHCPR Web page

under “MEPS” at <http://www.ahcpr.gov>.

For a detailed description of the MEPS survey

design, sample design, and methods used to

minimize sources of nonsampling error, see:

Cohen S. Sample design of the 1996 Medical

Expenditure Panel Survey Household

Component. Rockville (MD): Agency for

Health Care Policy and Research; 1997

(forthcoming). AHCPR Pub. No. 97-0027.

Cohen J. Design and methods of the Medical

Expenditure Panel Survey Household

Component. Rockville (MD): Agency for

Health Care Policy and Research; 1997

(forthcoming). AHCPR Pub. No. 97-0026.

For detailed data on which the 1996 numbers in

this Highlights were based, a set of two tables,

“Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance

Status Tables: First Half of 1996,” is available

from the AHCPR Clearinghouse (800/358-

9295), from AHCPR InstantFAX (301/594-

2800), and through the Agency’s Web page at

<http://www.ahcpr.gov> under “MEPS.” Ask

for AHCPR Pub. No. 97-R052.

More detailed information on the uninsured

population will be published in:

Vistnes JP, Monheit AC. Health insurance status

of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized

population. Rockville (MD): Agency for Health

Care Policy and Research; 1997 (forthcoming).

MEPS Research Findings No. 1. AHCPR Pub.

No. 97-0030.

AHCPR Pub. No. 97-0025

April 1997








































































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Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 

Agency for Health Care Policy and Research

Briefly stated:

Seventeen percent of the U.S. population

were uninsured throughout the first half

of 1996, on average. This represents

almost 44.8 million people who were not

covered by insurance, private or public. A

revised estimate of the uninsured derived

from MEPS first-round data, which will

incorporate additional data on payment

sources, is expected to be lower than this

initial estimate.

Over 33 percent of Hispanics and 23

percent of blacks were uninsured

throughout the first half of 1996. Less

than 14 percent of other race/ethnicity

groups (including whites) were uninsured.

Nearly 25 percent of all uninsured

Americans were under 18 years of age.

Nearly 11 million children—more than 15

percent of the Nation’s

noninstitutionalized children—were

uninsured throughout the first half of

1996.

Among children most likely to be

uninsured throughout the first half of

1996 were Hispanics, children living

outside metropolitan statistical areas, and

those living in families with adults who

had less than a high school education.

The Uninsured in

America—1996

Health Insurance Status of

the U.S. Civilian

Noninstitutionalized Population

Karen M. Beauregard, Susan K. Drilea,

Jessica P. Vistnes

Introduction

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

(MEPS) collects nationally representative data on

health care use, expenditures, source of payment,

and insurance coverage for the U.S. civilian

noninstitutionalized population. MEPS is

cosponsored by the Agency for Health Care Policy

and Research (AHCPR) and the National Center for

Health Statistics (NCHS). Preliminary data from

the MEPS Household Component of the Medical

Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS HC), collected in

the first several months of 1996, are shown here.

Once time-period and definitional differences are

considered, these estimates are consistent with the

findings of other recent surveys.

May 1997

Number 1








































































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MEPS Sample Design and

Accuracy of Estimates

The sample selected for the 1996 MEPS is a

subsample of the 1995 National Health Interview

Survey (NHIS), designed to produce statistically

unbiased national estimates that are representative

of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of

the United States. First-round data were obtained

for approximately 9,400 households in MEPS,

resulting in a survey response rate of 78 percent,

which reflects participation in both NHIS and

MEPS.

The statistics presented here are affected by

both sampling error and sources of nonsampling

error, which include nonresponse bias, respondent

reporting errors, interviewer effects, and data

processing misspecifications. MEPS person-level

estimation weights include nonresponse

adjustments and post-stratification adjustments to

population estimates derived from the March 1996

Current Population Survey (CPS), based on crossclassifications by region, age, race/ethnicity, and

sex.

Tests of statistical significance were used to

determine whether the differences between

populations existed at specified levels of

confidence or whether they occurred by chance.

Any comparison made in this Highlights is based

on tests using Z-scores having asymptotic normal

properties, at the .05 level of significance.

Because of methodological differences, use

caution when comparing these data with data from

other sources. For example, CPS measures persons

who are uninsured for a full year; NHIS measures

persons who lack insurance at a given point in

time—the month before the interview. CPS is

TWO

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Percent uninsured

Percent of 

total uninsured

Percent of 

total population

Other 

(including white)

Hispanic Black

Figure 1. Race/Ethnicity and Health Insurance

Status: First Half of 1996

H

Throughout the first half of

1996, Hispanics represented

almost 11 percent of the U.S.

population but 21 percent of

the uninsured. Blacks

represented almost 13 percent

of the U.S. population and 17

percent of the uninsured.

Other race/ethnicity groups

(including whites) represented

almost 77 percent of the U.S.

population and 62 percent of

the uninsured.

R

Lack of insurance throughout

the first half of 1996 was more

common in the South (20

percent of the region’s

population) and West (19

percent) than in the Northeast

(14 percent) or Midwest (14

percent). Of all the uninsured

in this country, 41 percent

lived in the South.

West

24.6

South

40.9

Midwest

18.8

Northeast

15.7

Percent of all uninsured Americans

Figure 2. Geographic Region and Health

Insurance Status: First Half of 1996

DATA SOURCE: Medical Expenditure Panel

Survey, Household Component






















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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80 Percent

of all children

Percent of all

uninsured children

Percent uninsured

Other

(including white)

Hispanic Black





























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0

10

20

30

40

50

60 Percent of

all children

Percent of all

uninsured children

Percent 

uninsured

2 or more

employed adults

1 employed

adult

No employed

adult

Figure 5. Employment Status of Adult Family

Members and Health Insurance Status of

Children: First Half of 1996

































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THREE

Q

About 28 percent of Hispanic

children under 18 were

uninsured throughout the first

half of 1996, compared with 18

percent of black children and

12 percent of children of other

race/ethnicity groups (including

whites). Hispanic children

represented almost 15 percent

of the Nation’s children but 26

percent of the Nation’s

uninsured children.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Percent uninsured

Percent of all 

uninsured children

Percent of all children

More than

 high school

 education

High school 

diploma

Less than 

high school 

education

Figure 3. Race/Ethnicity and Health

Insurance Status of Children: First Half of

1996

Figure 4. Highest Education of Any Adult

Family Member and Health Insurance

Status of Children: First Half of 1996

Children living in families with

two or more employed adults

were just as likely to be

uninsured throughout the first

half of 1996 (13 percent) as

children living in families with no

employed adults (15 percent). Of

all children uninsured

throughout the first half of 1996,

90 percent lived in families with

one or more employed adults,

the same proportion as

represented in the total

population; 46 percent lived in

families with two or more

employed adults.

P

H

Over 27 percent of children living in families where

adults had less than a high school diploma were

uninsured throughout the first half of 1996. In

comparison, 19 percent of children living in families

where adults had completed 12 years of education

and less than 11 percent of children living in families

where adults had more than 12 years of education

were uninsured.

conducted annually, and NHIS collects insurance data on a

continuous basis each year. In addition, unlike MEPS, CPS

counts military veterans whose source of health care is the

Department of Veterans Affairs as insured. CPS also counts

children of adults covered by Medicaid as being insured. For

these preliminary estimates, MEPS does not consider these

children insured unless their families report them as such.

DATA SOURCE: Medical

Expenditure Panel Survey,

Household Component