1

How did the questionnaire change in the CPS ASEC affect health 

insurance estimates?

Carla Medalia,1 Brett O’Hara, and Jessica C. Smith 

U.S. Census Bureau

Presented at the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology meeting 

Washington DC, December 3, 2015

Paper updated March 16, 2016

SEHSD Working Paper Number 2016-03

Abstract

Background. In 2015, two versions of the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement 

(CPS ASEC) were fielded. One survey included the traditional health insurance questions (asked prior to 2014) and 

the other included the redesigned questions (asked in 2014 and beyond).

Objective. To estimate the effect of changing the health insurance questions on the uninsured rate. 

Data and Methods. We use the 2015 CPS ASEC and 2015 Parallel Survey, both of which ask about health 

insurance coverage in 2014.

Findings. The redesigned survey questions identify more health insurance coverage than the traditional questions. 

The resulting lower uninsured rate is more in line with other federal surveys and administrative records.

Conclusions. Our findings suggest that the Affordable Care Act may have changed the way that people respond to 

the traditional health insurance questions in such a way that may have led to biased estimates of the uninsured rate 

had the questions not changed.

 

This paper is released to inform interested parties of ongoing research and to encourage discussion of work in 

progress. Any views expressed on statistical, methodological, technical, or operational issues are those of the 

authors and not necessarily those of the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

1 Carla Medalia is the corresponding author. Her email is: carla.medalia@census.gov.
2

The Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) is used to produce official 

estimates of income and poverty, and it is a widely-cited source of estimates on health insurance and the uninsured. 

Detailed health insurance questions have been asked in the CPS since 1988 as a part of a mandate to collect data on 

noncash benefits (Smith & Medalia, 2015). 

Researchers have questioned the validity of the health insurance estimates in the previous version of the 

CPS ASEC. In particular, the estimate of the uninsured in the previous calendar year was consistently higher than in 

other federal surveys, indicating that the CPS ASEC did not capture as much health insurance coverage in 

comparison (Kenney & Lynch, 2010). Additionally, these concerns extended to the Medicaid undercount (Klerman, 

Call, Lynch, & Ringel, 2009) and general misreporting of the source and timing of health insurance coverage. To 

address these concerns, the Census Bureau substantially redesigned the CPS ASEC health insurance module to 

improve estimates of health insurance coverage. Evaluation of the new questions included over a decade of research, 

including focus groups, cognitive interviews, and two national field tests (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). 

The redesigned questions, implemented in the 2014 CPS ASEC, improve upon the traditional questionnaire 

by addressing the well-documented overestimate of the uninsured population. The redesigned questions, which 

collect more detailed information than the traditional questions, differ from the traditional CPS in three primary 

ways: questions about type of coverage, questions about past coverage, and the household-level design (Medalia, 

O’Hara, Rodean, Steinweg, & Brault, 2014; Pascale, Boudreaux, & King, 2014). 

The redesigned health insurance questions are asked about each person individually (instead of about 

anyone in the household). The module begins by determining if a person is currently covered by health insurance. 

After establishing that a person is currently covered, a series of questions is asked to determine 1) what type of plan 

it is, 2) when the person was covered during the reference period between January 1 of the previous year and the 

interview date, and 3) who else was covered by that plan. For those without current health insurance coverage, a 

verification question is asked to determine whether the person had coverage at any time during the previous calendar 

year. Within the new questionnaire are questions that specifically ask about coverage obtained through the Health 

Insurance Marketplace or other state-based exchanges.

The traditional health insurance questions begin by asking if anyone in the household was covered by each

type of health insurance, such as employer provided, directly purchased, Medicare, and so on, at any time during the 

previous calendar year. They conclude with a verification question to either 1) verify that there are no more plans in 

addition to those already reported or, 2) verify that a particular individual was not covered by any type of health 

insurance during the calendar year. The traditional health insurance questions do not measure current coverage or 

the span of coverage, and there are no questions asked regarding coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace 

or state-based exchanges. 

In 2014, the Census Bureau implemented many changes to the CPS ASEC. As opposed to the redesigned 

income questions, which were phased in over two years, the redesigned health insurance questions completely 

replaced the traditional questionnaire in 2014. Because the full sample received the redesigned health insurance 

questions, the Census Bureau was able to produce a strong baseline of health insurance estimates for the 2013 

calendar year, the year before many provisions of the Affordable Care Act went into effect.

Previous research evaluated the impact of changing the health insurance questions in the CPS ASEC by 

comparing the traditional questions in the 2013 CPS ASEC to the 2013 national content test of the redesigned 

questions. Results showed that the redesigned questions produced a lower uninsured rate than the traditional 

questions, and the estimates were now more in line with estimates from other federal surveys (Medalia, O’Hara, 

Rodean, Steinweg, & Brault, 2014; Pascale, Boudreaux, & King, 2014). However, due to the low response rate 

(Hornick, 2014), data from the content test could not be used to produce a bridge between the traditional and 

redesigned series. 

In 2015, the Parallel Survey was conducted to fulfill budgetary requirements for the 2015 fiscal year. 

According to Public Law 113-235 Dec. 16, 2014, the Census Bureau was to "collect data for the Annual Social and 

Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey using the same health insurance questions included in 

previous years, in addition to the revised questions implemented in the Current Population Survey beginning in 

February 2014 (P.L. 113–235, 2015)." The Parallel Survey, which was fielded in March and April 2015, used the 
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same traditional health insurance and income questions that were used in the 2013 CPS ASEC and previous years. 

Efforts were made to ensure that the Parallel survey resembled the traditional CPS ASEC, including using the same 

interviewers, a production setting, and the full CPS basic interview that precedes the March supplement questions. 

In addition, the Parallel survey was processed by the same system that processed the CPS ASEC.

This request resulted in two versions of the survey: the 2015 CPS ASEC, which included the redesigned 

health insurance and income questions, and the 2015 Parallel Survey, which included the traditional questions on 

income and health insurance coverage. Having both of these surveys conducted at the same time provides a unique 

opportunity to examine the effect of changing the health insurance questions. In this paper, we compare the 2015 

Parallel Survey to the 2015 CPS ASEC to examine the effect of changing the health insurance questions on

estimates of the uninsured rate in the United States. 

Data and Methods

The data for this paper come from two sources: the 2015 CPS ASEC and the 2015 Parallel Survey. The CPS ASEC 

and Parallel Survey both ask detailed questions about income, labor force status, and health insurance coverage 

during the previous calendar year. As previously explained, the CPS ASEC included the redesigned health insurance 

and income questions and the Parallel included the traditional questions for both topics. Since the focus of this paper 

is the comparison of health insurance estimates between the two surveys, it is essential to describe any differences 

between the two surveys other than the survey questions themselves that could potentially affect our conclusions. 

Both the CPS ASEC and Parallel Survey were conducted in 2015, asking about health insurance coverage 

during 2014. The CPS ASEC was conducted from February through April, while the Parallel Survey was collected 

in March and April. For both surveys, the majority of interviews were conducted in March (Table 1). 

One key difference between the surveys was the sample design. The CPS ASEC sample was created using 

the same approach as in previous years. Most of the sample consists of the regular March CPS sample with 

additional cases selected from other CPS rotation groups for interviews in February and April (U.S. Census Bureau, 

2006). In 2015, the CPS sample still contained a combination of 2010-based sample design and 2000-based sample 

design. To select a sample for the Parallel Survey, first we developed two sample frames. One frame was created 

using households interviewed in the 2014 ASEC who were no longer active CPS cases (called retired sample). The 

other frame was created from 2000-based design addresses that had not been used (called reserve sample). The 

ASEC Parallel Sample started with 28,000 addresses, of which about 25,900 were eligible for interview. About 83 

percent of the Parallel Survey sample were “retired” cases who received their last ASEC interview in 2014, and the 

remaining 17 percent were reserve cases who had not had an interview yet (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). 

The percentage of households with a “complete” CPS basic interview, but which provided no health 

insurance information, was 27.6 percent for the CPS ASEC, about 3 percentage points lower than in the Parallel 

Survey, which had a dropout rate of 30.6 percent. Missing data in both the CPS ASEC and Parallel Survey were

imputed using the same methods. 

For both surveys, interviews were conducted either by phone or in person. However, the distribution of 

survey mode differed between the two surveys. For the CPS ASEC, 87.1 percent of interviews were conducted in 

person, compared with 65.9 percent in the Parallel Survey (weighted to the national level). The remaining interviews 

were conducted in telephone centers – 12.9 percent in the CPS ASEC and 34.1 percent in the Parallel Survey. 

Selection into survey mode differed between the two surveys. In the CPS ASEC, a subsample of households were

selected to be interviewed through telephone centers, while most interviews are selected to be conducted in person. 

In the Parallel Survey, all interviews were sent first to telephone centers, with unreached households interviewed in 

person.

However, in both surveys, the uninsured rate was higher for interviews conducted in person compared with 

those conducted by telephone centers. Given the different distributions of survey mode between the two surveys and 

the relationship between survey mode and the uninsured rate, we calibrated the Parallel Survey to match certain 

characteristics of the 2015 CPS ASEC. First, we calibrated by survey mode, to account for any differences that may 

affect the uninsured rate. Second, we calibrated within mode by the characteristics included in the weighting scheme

(race and Hispanic origin, age, sex, and home ownership). 
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The same definitions of health insurance coverage are used for the CPS ASEC and Parallel Survey. Health 

insurance coverage refers to comprehensive health insurance plans held at any time in the previous calendar year. 

Individuals are considered “insured” if they were covered by any type of health insurance for part or all of 2014, and 

“uninsured” if they had no health insurance coverage at any time during 2014. We also examine the following types 

of health insurance coverage: any private insurance, including coverage through an employer or directly purchased 

from an insurance company, and any government coverage, including Medicare, Medicaid, and military health care. 

In order to understand how the uninsured rate may differ between the two surveys, we also examine health 

insurance coverage by a variety of characteristics. Age is broken down into three categories: children under age 19, 

working-age adults aged 19 to 64, and older adults aged 65 and over. Family income relative to the poverty 

threshold is measured as the income-to-poverty ratio (IPR): in poverty, or below 100 percent, between 100 and 399 

percent, and at or above 400 percent. Sex is dichotomized as male or female. Race and Hispanic origin is 

categorized as non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Blacks, non-Hispanic Asians, and Hispanic and citizenship is 

measured as citizens and noncitizens. Finally, work status is defined as those working full time and year round, 

those working less than full time and year round, and nonworkers.

All estimates have been weighted to the national level and replicate weights were used to calculate the 

variances.

Findings

Overall, the uninsured rate for all was 10.4 percent as measured by the CPS ASEC and 10.6 percent as measured by

the Parallel Survey, estimates which were not statistically different (Table 2). However, the Parallel Survey 

estimates using the production weighting system show a different distribution of characteristics as described in the 

previous section. After calibrating the Parallel Survey sample, we found that the uninsured estimate was 11.1 

percent, 0.7 percentage points higher than the CPS ASEC uninsured rate of 10.4 percent (Table 3). Hereafter, all 

estimates using the Parallel Survey are calibrated using this method. 

We found a comparable relationship for the working-age population, aged 19 to 64. Among this group, the 

uninsured rate was 0.9 percentage points higher in the Parallel Survey than in the CPS ASEC (15.2 percent and 14.3 

percent, respectively). The uninsured rate for children under 19 and older adults aged 65 years and over were not 

statistically different between the surveys. In order to better understand differences between the surveys, the 

remainder of our findings focuses on the working-age adult population. 

Among working-age adults, we found that the uninsured rate was higher in the Parallel Survey than in the 

CPS ASEC for adults in poverty, females, Hispanics, citizens, less-than-full-time and year-round workers, and 

nonworkers. For the other demographic subgroups, there was no difference in the uninsured rate between the 

Parallel Survey and the CPS ASEC.

For working-age adults in poverty, the uninsured rate was 32.4 percent in the Parallel Survey, 3.5 

percentage points higher than the uninsured rate in the CPS ASEC (28.9 percent). The uninsured rate for females 

was 1.0 percentage point higher in the Parallel than in the CPS ASEC (13.1 percent and 14.1 percent, respectively). 

Hispanics had an uninsured rate that was 3.1 percentage points higher in the Parallel Survey (30.5 percent) than the 

CPS ASEC (27.4 percent). The uninsured rate for citizens aged 19 to 64 years was higher in the Parallel than in the 

CPS ASEC, by 0.7 percentage points. While the difference between the Parallel and the CPS ASEC for noncitizens 

was larger, it was not statistically different due to the sample size. Finally, the uninsured rate was 1.4 percentage 

points higher for adults who worked less than full time and year round, and 1.8 percentage points higher for 

nonworkers in the Parallel Survey than in the CPS ASEC. 

In addition to comparing the uninsured rate between the two surveys, we examined whether there were any 

differences by type of health insurance coverage for working-age adults (Table 4). Overall, there was no difference 

in private health insurance. The higher rate of employment-based coverage was offset by a lower rate of directpurchase insurance: employment-based coverage was higher by 2.1 percentage points in the Parallel than in the CPS 

ASEC, while direct purchase was 3.0 percentage points lower in the Parallel than in the CPS ASEC. The redesigned 

instrument specifically asks about coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace or other state-specific 

exchange plans. Since these plans fall under direct-purchase insurance, it could explain the higher direct purchase 

rate for the CPS ASEC. 
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There was no difference between the Parallel and the CPS ASEC for the working-age population covered 

by government insurance, but again, this is due to offsetting differences by coverage type. Among the subtypes of 

government coverage, Medicare was higher by 1.0 percentage point in the Parallel than in the CPS ASEC, while 

Medicaid was 1.0 percentage point lower in the Parallel, and there was no statistical difference for military

coverage. The redesigned instrument probes for coverage through underreported plans, such as Medicaid. Confusion 

between Medicaid and Medicare is a well-documented problem with health insurance surveys (Klerman, Call, 

Lynch, & Ringel, 2009). The redesigned questions attempt to address this misreporting through interviewer help text 

and edit checks for people who reported Medicare but who were not aged 65 and over or who did not receive Social 

Security due to a disability. Therefore, this pattern suggests that working-age adults misreported their Medicaid 

coverage as Medicare in the Parallel Survey. Therefore, the finding that the CPS ASEC has a higher Medicaid rate is 

consistent with expectations.

Conclusion

Initial estimates indicate that there was no statistical difference in the uninsured rate from the CPS ASEC compared 

with the Parallel Survey. However, due to differences between the distribution of survey modes and the relationship 

between survey mode and the uninsured rate, we calibrated the Parallel Survey to have the same distribution for 

mode and a set of key characteristics as the CPS ASEC. After calibration, the uninsured rate was higher in the 

Parallel Survey than in the CPS ASEC by 0.7 percentage points. 

Using the calibrated estimates, the uninsured rate was higher in the Parallel Survey for the working-age 

population and for subgroups of this population: people in poverty, females, Hispanics, citizens, those working less 

than full time and year round, and nonworkers. The Parallel had a lower rate of direct-purchase insurance and 

Medicaid than the CPS ASEC, while the Parallel had a higher rate of employment-based coverage and Medicare. 

Previous research, using data from the CPS ASEC Content Test, estimated that the difference in the 

uninsured rate between the redesigned and traditional questions was 1.4 percentage points. However, the test had a 

small sample with a high nonresponse rate, so the estimated effect of the questionnaire design could not be 

generalized to the total population. Using data from the Parallel Survey, we provide an estimated difference of 0.7 

percentage points between the redesigned and traditional questions. What explains the difference between the 

estimates of the questionnaire change?

One potential explanation is that the recall bias associated with health insurance coverage is greater for the 

traditional questions than the redesigned questions. In both the Parallel Survey and the CPS ASEC, respondents are 

asked in March about their health insurance coverage for the previous calendar year. Previous research on the 

traditional health insurance questions showed that respondents may conflate their current coverage with their 

coverage last year. If health insurance rates are relatively stable, this recall bias could lead to an overestimate of the 

uninsured rate, since respondents are more likely to be currently uninsured than uninsured for the entire previous 

calendar year. The redesigned questions attempt to address this problem by asking about current coverage first and 

then moving backwards to last year’s coverage.

On January 1, 2014, many important provisions of the Affordable Care Act went into effect. Between 2013 

and 2014, the uninsured rate decreased by 2.9 percentage points among all ages, and by 4.1 percentage points among 

adults aged 18 to 64 (Smith & Medalia, 2015). All major national surveys detected a comparable change in the 

percentage of the population uninsured during this time. Between 2014 and the first quarter of 2015, the uninsured 

rate declined again, by 1.9 percentage points for all ages and by 2.8 percentage points for 18 to 64 year olds (Cohen 

& Martinez, 2015). 

If the recall bias had a disproportionately large effect in the Parallel Survey, this could have led to a lower 

uninsured rate in the Parallel Survey than we might have expected. Many individuals enrolled in health insurance 

coverage between 2014 and early 2015. If they had conflated their current coverage with coverage during the 

previous calendar year, this could produce an underestimate of the uninsured rate, as opposed to an overestimate as 

seen in earlier years. 

Another possibility is that while the same survey instrument was used in the Parallel Survey as in the CPS 

ASEC, there are other differences between the samples, including the sampling frame and sample design. As with 

all research, it is also a possibility that unmeasured factors could explain the results. Although the same interviewers 
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conducted both the Parallel and the CPS ASEC surveys, it is possible that this affected the way in which they 

conducted the interviews. Another possibility could be an unobserved difference in sample characteristics beyond 

the ones we controlled for with the calibration method. Nonresponse by survey mode could have been a factor in the 

results. 

Finally, we are currently conducting further research to understand the effect of changing the health 

insurance questions in the CPS ASEC using a time-series approach to estimate the uninsured rate using the 

traditional questions. This research, which is consistent with P.L. 113–235 (2015), will allow us to extend the CPS 

ASEC time trend through 2013, and possibly through 2014 when using the Parallel Survey. When this work is done, 

we will have another estimate of the questionnaire effect.

 
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References

Cohen, R. A., & Martinez, M. E. (2015). Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates From the National 

Health Interview Survey, January–March 2015. National Center for Health Statistics.

Hornick, D. (2014). The 2013 Annual Social Economic Supplement Health Insurance Questionnaire Test: The 

Sample Design. Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology, (pp. 1-14). D.C.

Kenney, G., & Lynch, V. (2010). Monitoring Children’s Health Insurance Coverage Under CHIPRA Using Federal 

Surveys. In T. Plewes, Databases for Estimating Health Insurance Coverage for Children: A Workshop Summary 

(pp. 65-82). Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.

Klerman, J. A., Call, K. T., Lynch, V., & Ringel, J. D. (2009). Understanding the Current Population Survey’s 

Insurance Estimates and the Medicaid ‘Undercount’. Health Affairs - web exclusive, w991-w1001. Retrieved from 

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/6/w991

Medalia, C., O’Hara, B., Rodean, J., Steinweg, A., & Brault, M. (2014). Changing the CPS Health Insurance 

Questions and the Implications on the Uninsured Rate: Redesign and Production Estimates. U.S. Census Working 

Paper Series, 1-16. Retrieved December 1, 2014, from 

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/publications/sehsd_wp_2014-16.pdf

Medalia, C., O'Hara, B., Rodean, J., Steinweg, A., & Brault, M. (2013). Changing the CPS Health Insurance 

Questions and the Implications on the Uninsured Rate:Redesign and Production Estimates. Federal Committee on 

Statistical Methodology. Washington, DC: SEHSD Working Paper 2014-16. Retrieved from 

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/publications/sehsd_wp_2014-16.pdf

O’Hara, B., & Medalia, C. (2015). Bridging the Traditional to Redesigned Health Insurance Questions in the 

Current Population Survey. Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology. Washington DC.

O’Hara, B., & Medalia, C. (forthcoming). Health Insurance in the 2014 CPS ASEC: Examining the Effect of the 

Redesign. U.S. Census Bureau Working Papers.

P.L. 113–235. (2015). Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015. Washington: Goverment 

Printing Office.

Pascale, J., Boudreaux, M., & King, R. (2014). Understanding the New Current Population Survey Health Insurance 

Questions. U.S. Census Working Paper Series, 1-20. Retrieved 12 1, 2014, from 

https://www.census.gov/srd/papers/pdf/RSM2014-02.pdf

Smith, J. C., & Medalia, C. (2015). Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2014. Washington D.C.: U.S. 

Government Printing Office.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2006). Design and Methodology: Current Population Survey. Technical Paper 66. Retrieved 

from https://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/tp-66.pdf

U.S. Census Bureau. (2014). Improving health insurance coverage measurement: 1998-2014. Washington: U.S. 

Census Bureau.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2015). Source and Accuracy of Estimates for Income and Poverty in the United States: 2014 

and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2014. Retrieved from 

http://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2015/demo/p60-253sa.pdf
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U.S. Census Bureau. (2015). Source of the Data and Accuracy of the Estimates for the 2015 Annual Social and 

Economic Supplement Parallel Sample Microdata File. Retrieved from 

http://www.census.gov/housing/extract_files/data%20extracts/parallel15/S&A_final.pdf

 
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Tables and Figures

Table 1. Characteristics of the CPS ASEC and Parallel Survey

 

CPS ASEC Parallel

Data collection period February-April 2015 March and April 2015

Health insurance questions Redesigned questions Traditional questions

Income questions Redesigned questions Traditional questions

Sample design 2010 and 2000 2000

Sampling frame Standard CPS ASEC sampling 

frame

83% retired sample; 

17% reserve sample

Sample (addresses) 99,500 28,000

Reachable households 74,257 25,896

Dropout before health insurance 23,344 (27.6%) 7,921 (30.6%)

Survey mode 87.1% in person 

12.9% telephone centers

65.9% in person 

34.1% telephone centers

Source: 2015 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC)

Table 2. Uninsured rate by survey mode for the CPS ASEC and Parallel Survey 

Percent SE Percent SE

Total 10.43 (0.11) 10.61 (0.22)

 In person 11.00 (0.11) 12.02 (0.30)

 Telephone centers 6.30 (0.26) 7.75 (0.34)

CPS ASEC Parallel

Source: 2015 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC)
10

Table 3. Uninsured rate by demographic characteristic in the CPS ASEC and Parallel Survey

 

Difference

Percent SE Percent SE

All people 10.43 (0.11) 11.11 (0.26) 0.68 *

Age

Under 19 6.22 (0.17) 6.56 (0.33) 0.34

19 to 64 14.31 (0.15) 15.23 (0.35) 0.92 *

65 and over 1.37 (0.09) 1.59 (0.24) 0.22

Working-Age Adults

Income-to-Poverty Ratio

Below 100% 28.86 (0.56) 32.37 (1.16) -3.51 *

 100 to 399% 17.59 (0.23) 18.39 (0.53) -0.80

400% and above 5.93 (0.17) 5.37 (0.36) 0.56

Sex

Male 15.57 (0.20) 16.38 (0.48) -0.81

Female 13.09 (0.17) 14.12 (0.37) -1.03 *

Race and Ethinicity

White, non-Hispanic 10.53 (0.18) 10.83 (0.41) -0.30

Black, non-Hispanic 16.24 (0.43) 16.61 (0.91) -0.37

Asian, non-Hispanic 11.22 (0.59) 12.50 (1.32) -1.28

Hispanic 27.44 (0.43) 30.49 (0.98) -3.05 *

Nativity

Citizen 12.16 (0.16) 12.88 (0.36) -0.72 *

Noncitizen 34.09 (0.66) 36.47 (1.45) -2.38

Work Status

All workers, 19 to 64 years 13.23 (0.16) 13.92 (0.37) -0.69 *

 Full time, full year 11.23 (0.17) 11.48 (0.38) -0.25

 Less than full time, full year 18.05 (0.30) 19.42 (0.69) -1.37 *

Nonworkers 17.74 (0.37) 19.52 (0.68) -1.78 *

CPS ASEC Parallel1

Percentage 

Points

Source: 2015 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC)

Note: Parallel1

indicates data have been calibrated to the CPS ASEC by Race, Hispanic origin, age, sex, home 

ownership, and survey mode

Note: * indicates that the difference is statically significant at p< 0.1
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Table 4. Health insurance coverage types for working-age adults in the CPS ASEC and Parallel Survey

Difference

Percent SE Percent SE

Any private 71.14 (0.24) 70.91 (0.45) 0.23

 Employer based 59.39 (0.26) 61.51 (0.48) -2.12 *

 Direct purchase 13.10 (0.17) 10.06 (0.30) 3.04 *

Any government 20.39 (0.22) 20.01 (0.39) 0.38

 Medicare 3.85 (0.08) 4.84 (0.20) -0.99 *

 Medicaid 14.46 (0.18) 13.50 (0.35) 0.96 *

 Military 3.84 (0.11) 3.99 (0.19) -0.15

Uninsured 14.31 (0.15) 15.23 (0.36) -0.92 *

CPS ASEC Parallel1

Percentage 

Points

Source: 2015 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC)

Note: Parallel1

indicates data have been calibrated to the CPS ASEC by Race, Hispanic origin, age, sex, home 

ownership, and survey mode

Note: * indicates that the difference is statically significant at p< 0.1