An estimated 41.7 million people in the United States (15.6 percent) were without health insurance coverage during the entire 1996 calendar year. This number was up 1.1 million from the previous year, but the proportion was statistically unchanged.

Employment is the leading source of health insurance coverage.

Most people (70.2 percent) were covered by a private insurance plan for some or all of 1996. A private plan is one that was offered through employment (either one’s own or a relative’s) or privately purchased. Almost all private insurance was obtained through a current or former employer or union (that is, was employment-based). (See Figure 1.)

The remaining insured people (25.9 percent) had government coverage—medicare (13.2 percent of the population), medicaid (11.8 percent), and military health care (3.3 percent). Many people carry coverage from more than one plan.

Tables

Table A. Health Insurance Coverage Status and Type of Coverage [<1.0 MB]

Table B. All Persons Not Covered by Health Insurance by Selected Characteristics [<1.0 MB]

Table C. Poor Persons Not Covered by Health Insurance by Selected Characteristics [<1.0 MB]

Table D. Uninsured Children by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin [<1.0 MB]

Table E. Children by Type of Health Insurance Coverage [<1.0 MB]

Table F. Number of Persons Covered and Not Covered by Health Insurance by State [<1.0 MB]

Table G. Persons Near Poverty by Health Insurance Status and Selected Characteristics [<1.0 MB]

Table H. Persons Near Poverty by Health Insurance Coverage Status and Type of Coverage [<1.0 MB]

Press Briefing

Press Briefing on 1996 Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Estimates [<1.0 MB]

Others in Series

Publication

Money Income in the United States: 1996

September 01, 1997

This report presents data on the income of households, families, and persons in the United States for calendar year 1996 and compares them with those for 1995.

Publication

Poverty in the United States: 1996

September 1997

This report presents data for calendar year 1996 on the social and economic characteristics of the population living below the poverty level.

Publication

Family Income in the United States: 1954 and 1953

December 1955

Number of families, by family income; families and unrelated individuals by residence, and total money income, and percent distribution of families.

View All

Related Information

TABLE

Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage: 1996 - Detailed Tables

PUBLICATION

Health Insurance Publications

Current Population Survey Publications

Page Last Revised - October 8, 2021

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