NWX-US DEPT OF COMMERCE (US) 

Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

09-12-2012/9:00 am CT 

Confirmation # 2599186 

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Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage: 2011 Webinar 

September 12 2012 

10:00 am EDT 

Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants’ lines 

will be on a listen only mode. During the question and answer session, please 

press star and 1 on your touchtone telephone. Please record your name fully 

and clearly so that you may be announced. 

Today’s conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may 

disconnect at this time. I would like to turn today’s call over to Stacy Vidal. 

Ma’am, you may begin. 

Stacy Vidal: Thank you. Good morning. I’m Stacy Vidal from the Census Bureau’s Public 

Information Office. I’d like to welcome everyone listening in on the phone 

today and following the Webinar online. Today we are releasing our national 

estimate of income, poverty and health insurance coverage from the Annual 

Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey pertaining 

to the 2011 calendar year. 

Here’s our program for today’s Webinar. First we are pleased to have David 

Johnson, the chief of our Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division to 

discuss the findings. Then, as always, during our news conferences, once the 

presentation concludes, we will open up the floor to questions from reporters 

on the phones. 

Let me point out that in the next few moments, we will be posting a variety of 

resources online to assist you in doing your stories. We will post the full 

report, this presentation, the news release, links to detailed tables and fact 
NWX-US DEPT OF COMMERCE (US) 

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09-12-2012/9:00 am CT 

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sheets providing background information on the sources of income, poverty 

and health insurance statistics. 

You can find this information by clicking on the slider at the top of the 

homepage, <www.census.gov> and then you’ll be taken to our electronic 

press kit. So without further delay, let me present David Johnson. 

David Johnson: Thanks Stacy. Good morning to all of you and thank you for joining us. As 

Stacy said, today we are releasing the national income, poverty and health 

insurance coverage estimates from the Annual Social and Economic 

Supplement of the Current Population Survey or CPS. 

Let me begin by summarizing the main findings from each subject area. Real 

median household income in 2011 declined 1 and 1/2% from 2010. The 2011 

official poverty rate was 15% and the number of people in poverty was $46.2 

million. Neither is statistically different from last year. 

And the percentage and number of people without health insurance coverage 

decreased ─ 15.7% or 48.6 million people in 2011, down from 16.3% and 50 

million in 2010. Right now I’m going to give you some more details about the 

changes we observed in income. This chart shows median household income 

from 1967 to 2011 in real inflation adjusted dollars. 

Recessions, as defined by the National Bureau of Economics and Research, 

are depicted in this and (all time series charts) in light blue shading. Real 

median household income was $50,100 in 2011, 1 and 1/2% lower than in 

2010. And since 2007, the year before the most recent recession, median 

household income has declined 8.1% and it was 8.9% below its recent high 

achieved in 1999. 
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Since 1967, the first year household data was collected, real median 

household income has increased 19%. Looking at a couple household 

demographics, this next chart show household income by age of householder. 

Collectively, all households with a householder under age 65, showed a 

decline in real median household income between 2010 and 2011. 

Individually, declines were noted in the 35 to 44 and 55 to 64 age categories. 

The other age groups showed no statistically significant changes. Between 

2010 and 2011, the number of elderly households grew 4.3% to 26.8 million 

households. And as the chart shows, the median income of elderly households 

is much lower than the median of non-elderly households. And hence, the 

growing number of elderly households will tend to lower the overall median 

household income over time. 

Next we show household income by race and Hispanic origin. Real median 

income declined for non-Hispanic white households and black households 

between 2010 and 2011 while the changes for Asian and Hispanic household 

income were not statistically significant. 

Asian households continue to have the highest median household income at 

$65,100. Now while the median represents one point on the distribution of 

household income, the point at which half the households have income below 

it and half above it, other points along the distribution provide additional 

information about the nation’s household income distribution. 

For example, at the 10th percentile, 10% of households had incomes below 

$12,000. And at the 90th percentile, 10% of households had income above 

$143,600. In the 95th percentile, 5% had incomes above $186,000. Changes in 

the relationship of these income measures can indicate how income inequality 

has changed. 
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Income at the 10th percentile declined 1.9% between 2010 and 2011 while the 

change for the 90th percentile was not statistically significant. Since 1999, the 

10th percentile income fell 14.1% while income at the 90th percentile fell 

1.3%. And the ratio of the 90th to 10th income increased 14.9%, indicating a 

widening of the gap between the extreme top and bottom income groups. 

Household income, however, treats single people with $10,000 in income the 

same as a family of four with $10,000. Income inequality statistics can also be 

calculated using the family and individual incomes that are family size 

adjusted or equivalence adjusted – a method that considers the sharing of 

resources within a household and the economies of scale. 

Family size adjusted income is based on income relative to a four person, a 

two adult, a two child family. For example, the family size adjusted income 

for a single person living alone with $10,000 would be comparable to $21,600 

for a four person family. 

This slide, then, shows the size adjusted income approach to measuring 

income inequality by percentile. Since these numbers are all equivalent to 

incomes for four person families, all the income values at the various 

percentile limits are higher than those for household income. 

The 10th percentile is $17,000, the median is $65,000 and the top 1%, 

$437,000. Continuing with the equivalence-adjusted income, as we can see 

here, the change in the share of aggregate income by quintile and the top 5%. 

Between 2010 and 2011, there were declines in the second, middle and fourth 

quintiles while the highest income quintile increased by 1.6%. 
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The aggregate share of the top 5% increased 5.3% which, again, indicates a 

widening in the gap between the top and the bottom. Now using this 

information about the distribution of household income, we can use a Gini 

index, a widely use measure of inequality. 

The Gini index indicates higher inequality as the index approaches 1. Between 

2010 and 2011, there was an increase in the money income Gini of 1.6% and 

this is the first time the Gini index has shown an annual increase since 1993. 

Based on the equivalence-adjusted income, the Gini index increased 1.7% 

between 2010 and 2011 and over the entire 1967 to 2011 period, the money 

income Gini increased 20.1% and the equivalence-adjusted Gini increased 

slightly more. 

These next slides switch from household income to earnings and work 

experience data for people aged 15 and older. Here we see historical data on 

real median earnings and female-to-male earnings ratio for full-time yearround workers from 1960 to 2011. 

Between 2010 and 2011, the earnings of both men and women declined 2 and 

1/2%. The female-to-male earnings ratio was 77%, not statistically different 

from 2010. And over the long term, this ratio was up from 61% in 1960. Here 

we see the number of workers historically by work experience. Between 2010 

and 2011, the number of men and women working full-time year-round with 

earnings increased by 1.7 million and half a million, respectively, while the 

changes in the number of working men and women with earnings regardless 

of work experience were not statistically significant. 

This suggests a shift from part-time or part-year work to full-time year-round 

work status. This slide shows the number of year-round full-time workers by 
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quintile for 2010 and 2011. Notice that the largest percentage increase in the 

number of workers working year-round full-time occurred in the lowest 

quintile. 

This likely contributed to a lower median earnings and lower household 

incomes. Now we’ll take a look at poverty. This slide shows the number of 

people in poverty at 46.2 million in 2011 and the poverty rate at 15%. In 2011, 

a family with two adults and two children was categorized as “in poverty” if 

their total income was less than $22,811. 

And after three consecutive years of increases, neither the poverty rate nor the 

number of people in poverty were statistically different from the 2010 

estimates. Here we demonstrate the disparities in poverty across racial and 

ethnic groups. 

Hispanics were the only group to show a decline in their poverty rates from 

26.5% in 2010 to 25.3% in 2011. The 2011 poverty rates were 9.8% for nonHispanic Whites, 27.6% for blacks and 12.3% for Asians. Poverty rates for 

blacks and Hispanics were more than double the poverty rates for nonHispanic whites. 

This slide looks at poverty rates by age. The poverty rate in 2011 for children 

under 18 was 21.9%. Now the poverty rate for people aged 18 to 64 was 

13.7% while the rate for people aged 65 and older was only 8.7%. None of the 

rates for these age groups was statistically different from their 2010 estimates. 

While the poverty rates for all people age 65 and older was 8.7%, there were 

large differences by gender. And the poverty rate for women, age 65 and older, 

was 10.7% compared to only 6.2% for men. This slide shows the change in 

the number of people in poverty and the number of full-time year-round 
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workers. For the three groups for whom there was a decline in both the 

number of people in poverty and the poverty rate between 2010 and 2011. 

These are people living in the South, people living inside metropolitan 

statistical areas but outside principal cities or suburbs and non-citizens. For 

instance, the number of people living in the South in poverty decreased by 

three-quarters of a million while the number of full-time year-round workers 

in the South increased by 1.2 million. 

These increases in full-time year-round employment may have contributed to 

the fall in the number of persons in poverty and the poverty rates for these 

groups. The next chart presents the distribution from 1967 to 2011 of all 

people within five ranges of income-to-poverty ratios. 

One can see the diminishing share of people in two of the middle groups of 

distribution - the blue and orange groups, again, implying an increase in 

income inequality. Since 1967, the percentage of people with income between 

200% and 399% of their poverty threshold has decreased from 40.6% to 

30.5%. 

And the share of population with income between 100% and 199% of their 

threshold was also down from 26.9% to 19.4%. And over the same period, the 

shares of the population in the top and the bottom groups increased. The 

income and poverty estimates in this report are based solely on money income 

before taxes and use the poverty thresholds developed more than 40 years ago. 

In 2009, the Office of Management and Budget’s chief statistician formed an 

interagency technical working group. This group provided the Census Bureau 

and the Bureau of Labor Statistics a set of observations to serve as a roadmap 

in the development of a new Supplemental Poverty Measure. 
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The new measure will not replace the official poverty measure and will not be 

used to determine eligibility for government programs. The first SPM poverty 

estimates were released last November and the new SPM estimates for 2011 

will be released on Tuesday, November 13th. This slide compares the SPM 

poverty estimates for 2010, last year, with the official poverty estimates from 

last year for all people and by age group. 

The SPM poverty rate for the entire population was 16%, eight-tenths of a 

percentage point higher than the official rate. In looking at the specific age 

categories, the SPM poverty rate was lower than the official rate for children 

but higher than the official rate for those age 65 and older. 

And while we don’t have SPM estimates for 2011, we can look at the 

sensitivity of the poverty estimates to changes in the income measure. This 

table shows an incremental impact on the number of people in poverty of the 

addition or subtraction of a single resource component. 

Money income, which we used to calculate the official rates, includes all cash 

income such as earnings, Social Security, unemployment compensation, cash 

public assistance, interest and dividends but excludes non-cash government 

transfers and tax credits, so we can find out if the value of Supplemental 

Nutritional Assistance Program, or food stamps, were added to money 

income , then 3.9 million fewer people would be classified as in poverty. 

Alternatively, if the estimates of federal Earned Income Tax Credit were 

added to money income, then 3 million fewer children would be classified as 

in poverty. If the unemployment insurance benefits, which are included in 

money income, were not included, the number of adults, age 18 to 64 

classified as in poverty in 2011 would have increased by 1.6 million. 
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Finally, one can examine the effectiveness of the Social Security program in 

reducing the number of people age 65 and older in poverty. In 2011, the 

number of people age 65 and over in poverty would be higher by about 14.5 

million if Social Security payments were excluded from money income, 

more than quintupling the number of people age 65 and over in poverty. 

Retuning to health insurance, our main findings is that health insurance 

coverage increased between 2010 and 2011. This chart presents the uninsured 

rate from 1987 to 2011. The percentage of people without health insurance in 

2011 decreased to 15.7%. 

The percentage of children without health insurance in 2011, 9.4%, was not 

statistically different from 2010. In 1987, the uninsured rate for both all 

people and children was 12.9%. In 1999, the gap between all people and 

children was 1.6 percentage points and by 2011, the gap grew to 6.3 

percentage points. 

Here we see the types of health insurance coverage. In 2011, the percentage of 

people covered by private health insurance was not statistically different from 

2010. And this is the first time in the last ten years that the rate of private 

insurance coverage has not decreased. 

The percentage of people covered by government health insurance programs 

which includes Medicaid, Medicare and Children’s Health Insurance Program 

and military coverage, increased for the fifth consecutive year to 32.2% in 

2011. 

Hence, the increase in public coverage and no statistical change in private 

coverage may account for the increase in overall coverage. This chart focuses 

on the uninsured people by race and ethnicity. Compared with 2010, the 
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uninsured rate decreased for non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Asians in 2011. 

The uninsured rate for Hispanics in 2011 was not statistically different from 

the rate in 2010. 

And comparing 1999 and 2011, the uninsured rate went up for non-Hispanic 

whites from 9 to 11.1% while it decreased for Hispanics from 31.9% to 30.1%. 

And blacks and Asians did not have a statistical difference when comparing 

1999 and 2011. 

Let’s look more closely at the new health insurance estimates. This chart 

shows the percentage point change in uninsured rates by age. We chose these 

particular age groups because they’re of special interest because of recent 

changes in the law. 

Children under the age of 19 are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP, and 

individuals age 19 to 25 may now be a dependent on the parent’s health plan. 

The uninsured rate of children under age 19 is not statistically different from 

the year before. Those age 26 to 34 and 45 to 54 also had no significant 

difference in their uninsured rates between 2010 and 2011. 

However, people age 19 to 25 had a decrease in the uninsured rate of 2.2 

percentage points. Two other age groups also saw a decrease in their 

uninsured rates, people aged 35 to 44 and those aged 65 and over. Next we 

take a look at the relationship of household income and being uninsured. 

Twenty-five point four percent of people living in households with income 

below $25,000 were uninsured whereas 7.8% of people living in households 

with income above $75,000 were uninsured. The 2011 uninsured rate for 

people in households with income less than $25,000 experienced a decrease in 
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the uninsured rate while the other income groups did not have a statistical 

difference from 2010. 

And when we compare 1999 with 2011, all income groups have higher 

uninsured rates. This chart shows the age distribution of the total population 

compared to the uninsured. People age 18 to 44 years comprised 36.2% of the 

total population but comprised 56.7% of the uninsured population. 

And if we were to expand the age groups to those 18 to 64, we’d see that they 

make up 62.5% of the total population but compose 84.2% of the uninsured 

population. This slide further examines 18 to 64 year old population by the 

distribution of work status. 

Among the total population of 18 to 64 year olds, over 50% worked full-time 

year-round while 24.2% worked less than full-time and 25.4% did not work. 

However, among the uninsured for 18 to 64 year olds, only 32% did not work 

and nearly two-thirds of the uninsured worked at least one week during the 

year. And of these, about half worked full-time year-round. 

Using another data set from Survey of Income and Program Participation, we 

find that while most workers are offered employer-based health insurance, 

27% did not take up coverage for cost reasons. That concludes my part of the 

presentation. And as Stacy said, the report, this presentation and many more 

tables are available on our Web site. Now next Stacy will open the phone lines 

for questions from the media. 

Stacy Vidal: Thank you David. At this point we will open up the discussion to questions 

for media and we ask that you state your name and your media affiliation 

when you ask your question. And we want to give everyone an opportunity to 

ask a question so we’ll allow just one question and one follow up. 
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If you have any questions following this news conference, please call our 

Public Information Office at 301-763-3030 and we’ll flash that on the screen 

later, too, for you. So with that, operator, I think we’re ready. 

Coordinator: Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and 1 on 

your touchtone telephone. Please make sure and record your name slowly and 

clearly so that you may be announced. You will be introduced by your name 

and your affiliation. Please stand by. Our first question will come from CNN 

Money. Your line is open. 

Tami Luhby: Hi. Yes, can you please - thank you for holding the conference call. Can you 

please elaborate a little bit more on what you think caused the rise in the 

income inequality and in the, you know, differences in median income 

changes by quartile? And can you also discuss a little more - most people 

were expecting poverty to go up possibly to its highest level since ’83 or since 

the war on poverty began. Can you explain a little more why it wasn’t 

basically statistically different? 

David Johnson: So go back to the distribution slide. Let’s see, I can try. Yes, for inequality I 

think - let me put this up. So if you look at this we find that - yes, that’s fine. 

If you look at the three middle quintiles their share of incomes fell while the 

top 5% and the top quintile went up. 

So a lot of this increase in inequality from 2010 to 2011 is driven by changes 

at the very top of the distribution. In fact, the 99th percentile experienced 

about a 6% increase between 2010 and 2011. For poverty, I think it - I think 

doing forecasts is very, very difficult. 
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So forecasting what’s happening from year to year is problematic. So when 

you look at the poverty not changing between the two years, that’s why we 

showed the one example for the South, the suburbs and non-citizens, so those 

groups, where the poverty rates actually fell, there was a huge increase in the 

number of full-time year-round workers. 

And we also saw a big increase in the number of full-time year-round workers 

at the bottom quintile. So we think that this increase and shift from part-time 

to full-time could’ve kept that poverty rate from rising. 

Tami Luhby: Thank you. Just to clarify, you say 99th percentile? You mean, the top 1%? 

David Johnson: The top 1%, correct. 

Tami Luhby: Thank you. 

Coordinator: Our next question will come from Maggie Fox from NBC News. Your line is 

open. 

Maggie Fox: Thanks. Can you explain a little bit more about where the newly insured 

people came from? You know, who got new insurance and where? Thanks. 

David Johnson: So you can see... 

Maggie Fox: Hello? 

David Johnson: Yes, hold on. No, no. 

Maggie Fox: Hello? 
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Stacy Vidal: Yes, one moment. We’re looking for a slide. 

David Johnson: Just one more slide. So if you look at the uninsured rates by age, so you can 

see a lot of this fall in the uninsured rate and hence, an increase in insurance 

coverage is due to the - look at the 19 to 25 year old age group and we also 

find a large increase in coverage for public coverage. So I think those two 

things are driving the uninsured rate falling. 

You really can’t look at who obtained a new coverage because we don’t have 

the data on people from 2010 and 2011, the same people follow them over 

time. We’d have to use a different survey to really follow who actually 

changed coverage. 

Coordinator: Our next question will come from Pamela Fessler from National Public Radio. 

Your line is open. 

Pamela Fessler: Yes, actually my question’s already been answered. Thanks a lot. 

Coordinator: Our next question, then, will come from Sarah Cliff from Washington Post. 

Your line is open. 

Sarah Cliff: Hi. I had another question about the health insurance. I was wondering if you 

could speak at all to the 35 to 44 year olds and why they’re seeing a drop in 

their uninsured rate compared to those kind of right next to them in age groups. 

David Johnson: So we don’t really have information about why these different age groups are 

experiencing a fall. I mean, you’d have to look probably more closely at the 

data to see what types of coverage they have, private versus public, and those 

types of things. And we don’t really have that information at this point in time. 
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Coordinator: Our next question will come from Jim Angle from Fox News. Your line is 

open. 

Jim Angle: Thank you. I have a question about the earnings section, especially women 

and men’s earnings. What are the latest numbers and what is it that you 

measure? Is this a measure in any way of equal pay for equal work? 

David Johnson: Okay, so if you look at the chart, we try to plot the earnings of full-time yearround workers. So this is as comparable as we get. We do know that there are 

differences in occupation, tenure and all those types of things but we try to 

keep this on a consistent basis back in 1960. 

So that’s how you can look at the 77%. If you do look at this by occupation, 

we have a number of tables on our Web site that you can look at. Obviously 

for some occupations the ratio’s going to get close to 100%, other occupations 

it’s going to get lower than that. 

So depending on how you adjust for comparability, you’ll get different results. 

But we try to keep this measure the same measure we’ve done for a number of 

years to sort of see how it tracks. 

Jim Angle: So not equal pay for equal work? 

David Johnson: So I guess we don’t have a way of measuring equal pay for equal work. We 

try to compare the earnings of full-time year-round work between men and 

women. 

Jim Angle: Thank you. 
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Coordinator: Our next question will come from Danielle Kurtzleben from U.S. News and 

Reports. Your line is open. 

Danielle Kurtzleben: Hi. Thanks for having this. I’m wondering about that really wide gap that 

was shown for insurance coverage between different racial and ethnic groups 

that showed Hispanics with a very high uninsured rate. I’m wondering if you 

can speak to what might account for that. Thank you. 

David Johnson: So the question is what accounts for the gap between the uninsured rates for 

Hispanics and others? I don’t think we can really address why there’s a 

difference. I think you can look at the data probably more closely. There’re a 

number of tables on the Internet that will break out different race and ethnic 

categories by different components. 

So you can look at the age groups. You can look at their income levels. You 

can look at the types of coverage that they’re getting, the types of households 

there are. But I don’t think we have a sense of what it is about these groups 

that are causing the difference. 

Coordinator: Our next question will come from Olivia Winslow from Newsday. Your line 

is open. 

Olivia Winslow: Thank you. I was looking at the median household income. You say in 2011, 

it’s $50,100. In 2010, the number that I saw in the chart was $49,400. Was 

there an adjustment of the 2010 figure or are you saying the difference in 

figures is not statistically significant? 

David Johnson: So the numbers in the report are all calculated from 2010, 2011 using the 

revised population controls from 2010. And then we make up inflation 
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adjustments to make the comparability. So the comparable numbers for 2010 

and 2011 show a fall on 1 and 1/2 percentage points. 

Olivia Winslow: Okay, so I shouldn’t fixate on the dollar amount because an adjust- it’s been 

inflation or the 2010 number has been adjusted for inflation or the 20- I don’t 

know. 

David Johnson: Yes, so all these - so on this chart that’s shown up there, we show the inflation 

adjusted numbers all the way back. So I don’t know... 

Olivia Winslow: And I noticed the number of those in poverty is the same as the 2010 - 46.2 

million was given last year as well, correct? 

David Johnson: So when you say 46.2, what - you’re looking at Table E in the report? 

Olivia Winslow: Well, I was just looking at your remarks and... 

Olivia Winslow: In last year’s report, it was 46.2 million people were in poverty and that was a 

15.1% and now we’re giving the same number of people but we’re saying 

15% are - is the poverty, right, nationally? 

David Johnson: So there’d be a couple of differences. If you look at Table 3 in the report, 

we’re saying in 2010, using these new adjusted and updated population 

controls, there’re 306 million people and 46.3 million people below poverty 

whereas in 2011, using the new controls, it’s 308 million people and 46.2 

million people in poverty. So both of those things would have been adjusted 

with the new population controls. 

Olivia Wilson: Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. 
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Coordinator: Our next question will come from Sabrina Tavernise from the New York 

Times. Your line is open. 

Sabrina Tavernise: Hi. David, could you talk a little bit more about the - what could’ve kept 

the poverty rate from rising? You were talking about the shift from part-time 

to full-time work. 

David Johnson: Yes, when we look at it, that’s a lot - we suspect there’s a lot of that going on 

because, like I said, the three groups where the poverty rate fell and the 

number people in the poverty fell, showed a very large increase in the number 

of full-time year-round workers. And it looks like there’s a big shift from parttime to full-time and a big shift at the low end in the bottom quintile. 

So I think those types of things are what’s causing this poverty rate that keeps 

low. I mean, you can also see that the unemployment insurance keeps people 

out of poverty but it’s not clear that that was that big of a difference between 

last year and this year. So I think all those things going together, that work 

effort and the unemployment insurance, I think is what’s keeping this lower. 

Coordinator: Our next question will come from Kirsten Stewart, Salt Lake Tribune. 

Kirsten Stewart: Oh thanks. My question’s been asked - answered. 

Coordinator: Our next question then will come from Craig Schneider from Atlanta Journal 

Construction. Your line is open. 

Craig Schneider: It’s actually the Journal Constitution. 

Coordinator: I’m sorry. 
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Craig Schneider: Could you talk a little bit more about poverty going down in the South and 

what factors you see there? 

David Johnson: So I mean, the main factors we examined were the number of full-time fullyear workers. And that seems to be correlated with that fall in poverty. So 

there’re full-time full-year workers which could have led to a fall in poverty 

rate in the South. 

We didn’t examine a lot of other factors of what the changes are but there are 

a number of tables on the Web site so you can compare the poverty rate in the 

South for different characteristics. 

Craig Schneider: Thank you. 

Coordinator: Our next question will come from Becca Aaronson from Texas Tribune. Your 

line is open. 

Becca Aaronson: Hi. I wanted to clarify whether Texas was included in your - from the South 

and whether you could - you mentioned that there is an expansion of people 

on public insurance. And since ACA hasn’t required an extension of Medicaid 

yet, can you kind of give a description of why this might be occurring? 

David Johnson: So Texas, yes, would be included in the South. And let me stress that those of 

you who are interested in looking at poverty rates by your state and other 

areas, next week we’ll be releasing the American Community Survey which 

will have poverty rates and income levels for all states and all metropolitan 

areas and all areas over 65,000 population. 
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Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

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So I would look at those for the specific state levels, if that’s what you’re 

interested in. In terms of the uninsured, can you explain what you mean by the 

law changes? I didn’t quite get that. Could you repeat the insurance question? 

Becca Aaronson: Okay, well, the Federal Healthcare Reform may require states to expand 

Medicaid depending on what they choose to do. And that would include 

people at a higher threshold above the poverty line. But since that hasn’t taken 

effect yet, what other things do you think could be contributing to the greater 

degree of people that are on public insurance? 

David Johnson: Oh, so public insurance has been going up consistently for - I think for the last 

five years, six years there’s been an increase so we find a big increase in 

public insurance that’s going to be driven by more kids. It could be driven 

even by elderly. It could be driven by a bunch of other things. 

So I think we’re not surprised by the increase in public insurance because it’s 

continuously happened. So we don’t know what’s going to happen next year 

when states choose other things but we’ll have to wait and see. 

Becca Aaronson: Thanks. 

Coordinator: Once again, if you would like to ask a question from the media, please press 

star and 1 on your touchtone telephone. Our next question will come from Phil 

Galewitz from Kaiser Healthcare. Your line is open. 

Phil Galewitz: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. How much do you attribute the provision under 

the double healthcare law that lets adult children stay under their parents 

coverage for the reduction of the not insured among 19 to 25? And I have a 

follow up as well. 
NWX-US DEPT OF COMMERCE (US) 

Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

09-12-2012/9:00 am CT 

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David Johnson: I think when we look at the number of these youth who are remaining 

dependents, I think we are accounting 40% of the fall being from that 

provision. (Editor’s note: Actually, the 40% refers to the fact that 19-25 year 

olds represented 40% of the total decline in the uninsured over the period.) 

Phil Galewitz: That provision was also around last year where that group saw about a 2% 

drop. So how much of that is that responsible, this age group, for the overall 

drop of the uninsured? Because that’s, again, in 2010 we saw a 2% decline in 

this age group? 

David Johnson: So right. So yes, the provision started in September of 2010, so part of the 

change last year could’ve been attributed to this. So I think the best thing is to 

compare 2009 to 2011 and we find about I think almost a 4 percentage point 

difference between those. So it’s hard to really separate all of that for this 

particular provision. 

Phil Galewitz: So again, 40% of the drop from 2010 to 2011 you can attribute to this 

provision in the law? 

David Johnson: Well, again, we attribute it to the fact that these youth are on their parent’s 

plan. It’s hard to actually say it because of the law. You know, people 

could’ve chosen that for other reasons. 

Phil Galewitz: Okay, thank you. 

Coordinator: Our next question will come from Carol Morello from Washington Post. Your 

line is open. 

Carol Morello: Hi. David, at the beginning you talked about how the growing number of 

elderly people is going to lower the total median household income. Does that 
NWX-US DEPT OF COMMERCE (US) 

Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

09-12-2012/9:00 am CT 

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Page 22 

mean that in the future, that as Baby Boomers retire, that even if there’s a 

strong recovery, it’s likely that median household incomes will decline for a 

fair number of years just because so many Baby Boomers will be getting older 

and their incomes will be going down? 

David Johnson: So I can’t predict what’ll happen in the future but we have looked at this in the 

past and we find a little increase in this effect over the past four or five years. 

You can see that the increasing numbers of elderly, right, yield those - a 

smaller increase in the mean and median income. 

Carol Morello: Can you say how much? 

David Johnson: No, I can’t really say. 

Carol Morello: A fraction of a percentage point every year or a full percentage point? 

David Johnson: No, we haven’t done the actual calculation in the fraction of percentage points 

but I mean, it’s not much. I mean, this year, and I think it was changing things 

by a couple hundred - maybe a couple hundred dollars. 

Carol Morello: Oh okay. Thank you. 

Coordinator: Our next question will come from Brian Bull from WCPN. Your line is open. 

Brian Bull: Yes, hi. Just a clarification here. I was just trying to get some status of the data 

for Ohio’s poverty numbers. But I think you said a few minutes ago that that 

information will not be released until next week. But then on the link here that 

I have, it does show data going back from 1980 to 2011 for Ohio. So I’m just 

clarifying, is this the most recent data for Ohio and what is being released 

necessarily? 
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Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

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David Johnson: That TPF, the data we use to produce these estimates is the same data that’s 

used to produce the unemployment rate is a representative sample, so there are 

enough households in these states to produce state level estimates. However, 

they’re not as reliable. The standard there, the variability of these things are 

high. 

So we still produce state level estimates using two years or data and put them 

on the Web site. And you can see the trends over time for different states. We 

would recommend, however, if you’re really going to see the changes in states 

and compare states to your local area - to Cleveland and Columbus in Ohio - 

you should wait for the American Community Survey data which comes out 

next week. It has a 3 million household sample, much more detailed by 

geography so you can really get a good sense of what the poverty rates are in 

the states and the local areas. 

Brian Bull: All right, thank you. And when is that being released next week? 

David Johnson: So there is the data - will be released next Thursday, however, there will be an 

embargo that begins next Tuesday and I think Stacy will talk a little more 

about that at the end. 

Coordinator: Our next question will come from David Sheingold with Bergen Record. 

David Sheingold: Hello. 

Coordinator: Your line is open. 

David Sheingold: Hi. Question, a follow up on the state level data. I do see that there is the basic 

state level data that you had released in the past on the... 
NWX-US DEPT OF COMMERCE (US) 

Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

09-12-2012/9:00 am CT 

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Stacy Vidal: Dave, are you there? 

David Sheingold: Yes, I’m here. Can you hear me? 

Stacy Vidal: Now we can. 

David Sheingold: I see that there are state tables with the basic household income, poverty rate 

and health insurance numbers. Is anything more detailed going to be released 

today at the state level like you have at the national level or is that all coming 

out next week? That’s the first question. The second question is should we use 

the state level data at all given that you’re going to be overriding it with ACS 

data next week? 

David Johnson: So it depends what your purpose is. So obviously if you want to look at a state 

trend back in 1980, then the only dataset that you’ll have is the CPS data. If 

you’re really looking at your current 2011 states or comparing it to 2010, you 

should probably wait until next week to use the American Community Survey 

because I think that’ll have much more detail. And then you’ll have - you’ll 

also have a lot more detail of the poverty rate and the composition of the poor 

and you’ll get a breakdown, like I said, to every county with populations of 

65,000 or more and every single metropolitan area across the country. 

David Sheingold: So there won’t be any more detail at the state level released today? That’s all... 

David Johnson: No, so the CPS, right, we can only produce those high level numbers at the 

state level using the CPS. 

David Sheingold: So just for time series change, this is the only source but for... 
NWX-US DEPT OF COMMERCE (US) 

Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

09-12-2012/9:00 am CT 

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David Johnson: For long time series change. The ACS data will have data all the way back to 

2000. But if you want to go way back, then you need to use these data. 

David Sheingold: But for the most accurate stuff, the ACS is the best to use at the state level. 

David Johnson: Correct. 

David Sheingold: Okay thanks. 

Coordinator: Once again, if you are a member of the media and would like to ask a question, 

please press star and 1 on your touchtone telephone. Our next question will 

come from Angela Carter from Digital First Media. Your line is open. 

Angela Carter: Hi. Actually my question was addressed so thank you. 

Coordinator: One moment. We have a question from Judith Bird from Hannah News. Your 

line is open. 

Judith Bird: I just wanted to clarify that the link with the slides is for - the link in the news 

release to the slides says is for the coverage for 2010 and it’s stated 2011. 

Stacy Vidal: Yes, I was just alerted, so if you all received the news releases directly from 

us in email, the first release that went out included the links to last year’s press 

kit. We apologize for that, so we just sent a correction with this year’s press 

kit. 

So you should see that. Or you could just go to our homepage at <census.gov> 

and click on that little slider, that thing moving at the top of the page. The 

number one position will take you to this year’s press kit. And that should 

have the slides and everything for this year, for today. 
NWX-US DEPT OF COMMERCE (US) 

Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

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Judith Bird: I’m easily confused. Thank you. 

Stacy Vidal: No, that’s partly our fault. I apologize for that. 

Coordinator: Stacy, I will now turn the call back over to you. 

Stacy Vidal: All right, sounds good. So in concluding today’s news conference, I’d like to 

direct your attention to a few other products coming out. As David mentioned, 

we are having a lot of state estimates and local level estimates coming out 

next week. 

To help you prepare for that, on Monday, September 17th, we will conduct a 

Webinar that will provide some technical background information on that 

release, the release of the 2011 American Community Survey estimate. We 

will not discuss the results themselves during that Webinar but rather these 

results - or these estimates are made available under embargo starting 

September 18th, so next Tuesday and then for publication, on September 20th, 

next Thursday. 

Those estimates will provide single-year estimates of median household 

income, poverty, health insurance coverage for all states, counties, places and 

other geographic areas that have populations of 65,000 or more. That release 

will also have estimates for numerous social, economic, housing 

characteristics such as language, education, commute to work, employment, 

many other things. 

In the coming months, we will also release a series of short briefs that analyze 

a wide range of topics from the American Community Survey. Additional 

American Community Survey estimates will be released later this fall. On 
NWX-US DEPT OF COMMERCE (US) 

Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

09-12-2012/9:00 am CT 

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October 25th, we will publish three-year estimates. Those are a compilation of 

statistics for 2009 through 2011 and those are for geographic areas that have 

20,000 people or more. 

On December 6th, we will release estimates that aggregate statistics over a 

five year period for 2007 through 2011. And those estimates will be available 

for all areas regardless of their population size, down to the block group. 

Let me also mention three more upcoming releases that are related to today’s 

topic. In a few weeks we will release a report on the relationship between 

health status, health insurance coverage and the utilization of medical services. 

On November 13th, we will release estimates from the 2011 Supplemental 

Poverty Measure. As David described, these compliment but not replace the 

official poverty estimates that we released today. 

Finally, in December, we will publish our Small Area Income and Poverty 

Estimates for 2011 which represent income and poverty estimates for all 

counties and school districts using only one year of data. 

So with that, let me thank you for participating in today’s event. If you have 

additional questions on the topics covered in today’s news conference, please 

call the Census Bureau’s Public Information Office at 301-763-3030. I would 

also like to encourage you to visit Random Samplings, the Census Bureau’s 

official blog. 

We’ve just posted an entry that dives deeper into the income findings we’ve 

discussed today. And in the early afternoon, we’ll post a similar blog on the 

poverty statistics, followed thereafter by one on health insurance. You will 

find the link to the blog on the press kit or in the lower right-hand corner of 

our homepage. 
NWX-US DEPT OF COMMERCE (US) 

Moderator: Robin Wyvill 

09-12-2012/9:00 am CT 

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And again, you can find all the materials we’ve described today, as well as 

many other things, on our press kit page which you can find at <census.gov> 

and then click on that slider, that moving image at the top of the page, that 

number one. With that, we will conclude. Thank you. 

Coordinator: Thank you. That does conclude today’s conference call. Thank you for 

participating and you may disconnect your lines at this time. 

END