Census provides local info about insurance coverage

Submitted by pahealth on September 23, 2009 - 12:47pm

Want to know how many are uninsured in your county or city? Or how many have private coverage as compared to public coverage? This year's American Community Survey (ACS) data, released by the Census Bureau September 22, provides that information.

This is the first time local data has been released in this fashion; thus, comparable data from previous years is not available.

Only larger counties and cities are described. In Pennsylvania, the ACS data covers only the 39 most populous counties and only the state's seven largest cities.

To review that data as prepared by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, click on the links below.

For example, between 23-24 percent of the working-age adults in Reading and Allentown were uninsured in 2008, marking the high point among urban centers in Pennsylvania.

Among the 39 largest Pennsylvania counties, and focusing on the crucial 18-64 year-old age range, Crawford, Lawrence and Philadelphia counties had the highest rates of uninsured residents, all between 18 - 19 percent.

Statewide, 970,000 working-age Pennsylvanians were uninsured, nearly 13 percent.

This compares to 20 percent across the United States as a whole.

One reason Pennsylvania generally does better than the nation is because Pennsylvania traditionally has enjoyed a high rate of employer-provided health insurance, in part due to strength of labor in negotiating contracts for workers. During this decade, however, the share of Pennsylvania workers who are insured through their place of work has fallen below 70 percent. Indeed, the drop from 2007 to 2008 was nearly 4 percent, and the decline in 2009 is expected to be even greater due to the economic recession and the difficult business environment.

For the analysis of the American Community Survey data by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, click the link below.