Many people are concerned about the growing number of Americans who lack health insurance. This report uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine this issue. It focuses primarily on the extent to which people are covered by health insurance over a 28-month period beginning in early 1992. The source of this information is the first seven waves of the 1992 panel of the SIPP.

During each SIPP interview, information is collected on health insurance coverage (along with other information on income and labor force and program participation) for each month in the 4-month reference period. It is therefore possible to classify people by the number of months over the 28-month period that  the person was covered by one or more types of health  insurance. It is also possible to measure the number of months  continuously spent without insurance coverage; that is, spells of  noncoverage.

Health insurance in this report refers to the following types of coverage: 1) employer- or union-provided insurance, 2) other privately purchased health insurance, 3) medicare, 4) military health care, and 5) medicaid.