Health Insurance Coverage Up For Kids

WASHINGTON—Health insurance coverage for children improved in 2004, and the percentage of working-age adults without insurance coverage, which had been climbing in recent years, did not increase last year, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).



The report, “Health Insurance Coverage: Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 2004,” based its findings on CDC’s National Health Interview Survey, which provides estimates of insurance coverage for the United States in 2004. For the first time, the latest survey also includes statistics on insurance coverage for the nation’s 10 largest states.



The report found that in 2004, over 90 per cent of America’s children had health insurance at the time of the interview, a steady rise from the first report in 1997. In 2004, 9.4 per cent were without health insurance while in 1997 about 14 per cent lacked coverage. The report found that the improvement in coverage for children reflected an increase in public coverage, including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which is for poor and near-poor children.



Among poor and near-poor children, lack of coverage dropped by about a third from 1997. For near-poor children, public coverage almost doubled from 24 per cent to 43 per cent between 1997 and 2004. Nearly 70 per cent of poor children under 18 years of age rely on public coverage.



Overall, 14.6 per cent of the population was without health insurance coverage in 2004, about the same level as in 1997. One in five working-age adults ages 18 to 64 were without insurance in 2004. This number had been steadily rising in recent years, but appears to have leveled off in 2004.