News from the FDA/CDC

Young adults lead the ranks of recently insured

Publish date: August 30, 2017
By
Richard Franki

 

The uninsured rate for young adults fell 50% from 2010 to 2016, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

In the first quarter of 2010, 30.6% of adults aged 18-29 years did not have health insurance at the time they were interviewed for the National Health Interview Survey. By the last quarter of 2016, that figure was down to 15.4%, a drop of nearly 50%, the AHRQ said in its annual National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report.

Uninsured Americans aged 0-64 years, 2010-2016 by quarter
The reductions for Americans younger and older were robust but not as large. Among adults aged 30-64 years, the proportion who were uninsured fell almost 36%, going from 18.2% in the first quarter of 2010 to 11.7% in the last quarter of 2016. Children had the smallest reduction by age group, 24%, as their uninsured rate decreased from 7.4% to 5.6%, the AHRQ reported.

For the total population under age 65 years, the uninsured rate dropped from 17.5% in the first quarter of 2010 to 10.8% in the fourth quarter of 2016, the AHRQ said, for an overall decline of 38%.

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