Release of 2015 Health Insurance Estimates for All Counties and States

The 2015 Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) are now available on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Web site and include:

• An interactive tool that allows data users to create, download, and share custom data tables, maps, and time trend charts.
• The 2015 SAHIE Report, (PDF-3.4MB) which provides an overview of the latest release and a comparison with the prior release.
• A Health Insurance Data Source Recommendations chart that summarizes guidance for data users regarding Census Bureau health insurance coverage datasets.
• Maps showing changes in uninsured rates between 2014 and 2015.

The estimates are the result of a multi-year collaboration between CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control and the Census Bureau’s Small Area Estimates Branch. Florence Tangka leads this effort on behalf of CDC. The original purpose of this work was to supply CDC’s National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) with a working denominator to estimate the percentage of eligible women screened for breast and cervical cancer. As applicable, NBCCEDP programs are encouraged to use the county-level health insurance coverage estimates to evaluate the equitable distribution of screening resources across their jurisdictions.

SAHIE is the only source of single-year estimates of health insurance coverage for all counties in the United States by select economic and demographic characteristics. The 2015 SAHIE is the second release containing estimates for the age group 21 to 64 years. Improvements in data methods, which were applied to the 2014 and 2015 SAHIE, were used to update the 2013 SAHIE for comparability purposes. Because consistent estimates are available from 2008 to 2015, SAHIE reflects annual changes over time.

The 2015 SAHIE provides state- and county-level estimates of people with and without health insurance coverage by:

• Age group: Birth to 64 years, 21 to 64 years, 18 to 64 years, 40 to 64 years, and 50 to 64 years.
• Sex: Female, male, and both sexes combined.
• All incomes and income-to-poverty ratios: 0 to 138, 0 to 200, 0 to 250, 0 to 400, and 138 to 400 percent of the poverty threshold.
• Estimates for the birth to 18 years age group are available by the six income categories listed above.

State data are categorized by race/ethnicity: white alone, not Hispanic; black alone, not Hispanic; and Hispanic (any race).

SAHIE data may be useful in evaluating and planning other programs or initiatives that work with similar uninsured and low-income populations. For example, the data can be used to analyze geographic variation in health insurance coverage, as well as differences in coverage by race/ethnicity, sex, age, and income levels that reflect thresholds for state and federal assistance programs.

Please send any questions through CDC-INFO. We look forward to hearing from you.