A total of 29.3 million Americans (9.1%) were uninsured in 2017 -- not a big change from 2016, but down by 19.3 million from 2010, the year the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law, a government survey found.
Among adults, ages 18-64, 12.8% were uninsured in 2017, while 19.3% had public coverage, and 69.3% had private health insurance coverage, according to the survey by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Among children, ages 0-17, 5.0% were uninsured, 41.3% had public coverage, and 55.0% had private health insurance coverage, the survey found. "The percentage of children who were uninsured generally decreased over time," the authors noted, adding that "While the percentage of children with private health insurance coverage has decreased and public coverage has increased over time, more recently, the percentage of children with public or private coverage has leveled off."
In terms of income, among adults, ages 18-64, 24.4% of those who were poor, 23.8% of those who were near poor, and 8.2% of those who were not poor lacked health insurance coverage in 2017. "A decrease was observed in the percentage of uninsured adults from 2010 through 2017 among all three poverty status groups," the authors wrote. "However, the greatest decreases in the uninsured rate since 2013 were among adults who were poor or near poor."
Among ethnic groups, Hispanic adults made up the large percentage of the uninsured, at 27.2%, followed by black at 14.1%, non-Hispanic whites at 8.5%, and Asians at 7.6%. All four of these groups had significant drops in their uninsured populations from 2013 through 2017, the survey found.
The proportion of adults who were uninsured for at least part of the year dropped by nearly 10 percentage points from 2010 to 2017, from 26.7% to 16.8%; however, there were no significant changes from 2016 through 2017.
Of those adults under age 65 with private health insurance, 3.7% were covered by plans bought through the ACA health insurance exchanges, down from 4.3% who had exchange plans in 2016, the survey found; however, that decrease was not statistically significant.
Among 18 states highlighted in the survey, those with the highest levels of uninsured residents in 2017 were:
- Texas: 26.4%
- Georgia: 20.3%
- Florida: 20.1%
- North Carolina: 17.7%
- Missouri: 14.0%
States with the lowest uninsured levels included Massachusetts (5.4%), New York (7.1%), Pennsylvania (7.3%), Washington (7.5%), and Michigan (8.1%).
Survey data came from the 2017 National Health Interview Survey, along with comparable estimates from previous calendar years. Estimates for 2017 are based on data for 78,074 people.