The Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) is a supplemental survey of the CPS, which is the longest running survey conducted by the Census Bureau. The key purpose of the CPS ASEC is to provide nationally representative estimates of economic well-being in the United States, of which health insurance coverage is an important part. Among many other topics, questions ask about current and previous year health insurance coverage, as well as medical expenditures. Each year, the CPS ASEC sample consists of about 100,000 addresses.

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) collects detailed information on health insurance coverage and many other topics from the same respondents for a period of up to four years. The SIPP is useful for examining monthly dynamics across time at the national level (such as how long individuals remain uninsured and changes in health insurance coverage within a given year). Sample sizes range from approximately 14,000 to 36,700 interviewed households.

The ACS is the largest ongoing nationally representative survey that collects information on social, economic, and housing topics for approximately 3.5 million addresses annually. Due to its large sample size, the ACS provides estimates at many levels of geography. Estimates from the survey reflect an annual average of current health insurance coverage in a given year.

The Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) program was created to develop model-based estimates of health insurance coverage for counties and states. SAHIE is only source of single-year health insurance coverage estimates for all U.S. counties. This program is partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC). The SAHIE program models health insurance coverage by combining survey data with administrative records and other Census data sources. The model produces timely and accurate estimates of health insurance coverage. Additionally, the SAHIE program's model methodology and estimates have undergone internal U.S. Census Bureau review as well as external review.

The SAHIE program produces data for the following domains:

• Ages 0-64, 18-64, 21-64, 40-64, and 50-64
• Female, male, and both sexes
• All incomes and income-to-poverty ratios (IPR) 0-138, 0-200, 0-250, 0-400, and 138-400 percent of the poverty threshold
• For states only: White not Hispanic, Black not Hispanic, and Hispanic (any race)
• In addition, estimates for age category 0-18 by the six income categories listed above are produced

Read more about SAHIE: SAHIE

For more information about SAHIE categorical variable values: SAHIE file layout overview [PDF <1.0 MB]

For more information on when to use what Census Health Insurance products.

Also, please note that we currently only have SAHIE API data.

• API information: api.census.gov/data/timeseries/healthins/sahie.html
• Geography: api.census.gov/data/timeseries/healthins/sahie/geography.html
• Variables: api.census.gov/data/timeseries/healthins/sahie/variables.html
• Example Call: Shows the percentage of people insured and the percentage of people not insured in all counties in Delaware in 2020.

api.census.gov/data/timeseries/healthins/sahie?get=NIC_PT,NUI_PT&for=county:*&in=state:10&time=2020

• API calls that request too many values at one time need to be subset by geography, time, or age/race/sex/IPR categories. An example of this:

api.census.gov/data/timeseries/healthins/sahie?get=NIC_PT,NAME,NUI_PT,YEAR&for=county:*&in=state:01&AGECAT=0&SEXCAT=0&IPRCAT=0

• Additional examples: api.census.gov/data/timeseries/healthins/sahie/examples.html
• Categorical values: SAHIE file layout overview [PDF <1.0 MB]