Posted on November 18, 2009 08:44
Categories: Employer and Individual Insurance | Medicaid | Medicare | State and Local | Special Populations
Topics: Employer-Sponsored Coverage | Individual Coverage | Medicaid | Medicare | State Data | Uninsured
Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the Urban Institute released a brief examining the variations in health care coverage by congressional district. The brief examines public and private coverage as well as uninsurance, finding that private coverage rates are lowest in districts with higher poverty rates and that uninsurance is highly correlated with low private coverage rates. The brief also identifies the districts that would benefit the most from the increased coverage currently proposed in national health care reform legislation.
From the report:
New data on health insurance coverage from the American Community Survey show extensive variation in rates of private and public coverage and uninsurance across congressional districts in the United States. This survey reveals those districts that face the greatest deficiencies in private coverage and pinpoints the districts where public coverage closes some of the gap left by low rates of private coverage. The picture that emerges is that (1) rates of private coverage are lowest in districts that have higher poverty rates, which tend to be concentrated in the South and West; (2) the needs in these high-poverty districts have led many to have above average rates of public coverage; and (3) despite these higher rates of public coverage, uninsurance remains most serious in districts with low rates of private coverage. This analysis identifies the districts in which residents would have the most to gain from health reforms that are designed to increase health insurance coverage toward a higher and more uniform national standard.
Full report: Variation in Insurance Coverage Across Congressional Districts: New Estimates from 2008 (PDF | 640.43 KB)
The Urban Institute. (2009). Variation in insurance coverage across Congressional districts: new estimates from 2008. Kenney, Genevieve; Lynch, Victoria; Zuckerman, Stephen; & Phong, Samantha.
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