Trends in Health Insurance Coverage in US Worker Groups: The National Health Interview Survey NHIS

1
Trends in Health Insurance Coverage in US Worker
Groups The National Health Interview Survey
(NHIS)
Arheart K, Lee D, Fleming LE, Chung-Bridges K,
Christ SL, LeBlanc W, Caban A, Pitman T Dept
Epidemiology Public Health (University of Miami
Miller School of Medicine), Odum Research
Institute (UNC Chapel Hill, NC)

• OBJECTIVES/BACKGROUND
• Many American workers and their families obtain
  medical insurance through their employers or
  unions
• Rising costs for health care and health insurance
  and global economic competition pressure industry
  and unions to enact cost-cutting policies
• Therefore, many US workers and their families may
  be increasingly without health insurance
• This study examined trends in the prevalence of
  health insurance coverage in US worker groups

2
Methods

• Data were from the 1997-2003 National Health
  Interview Survey (NHIS)
• Reported medical insurance prevalence among
  current US workers was tabulated by occupation
  and further stratified by gender, race, and
  ethnicity
• Prevalence estimates were weighted to represent
  the US workforce
• Weighted linear regression was used to compute
  the estimates of annual change in prevalence
  (slope)

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Results

• 123,052,357 US workers annually from 1997-2003
• 84 annual prevalence of medical insurance among
  all US workers
• 19,212,411 workers had no health insurance
• 455,294 more workers had no health insurance each
  year
• 12 (92) occupational categories had downward
  trends
• White collar and unionized occupations had higher
  annual prevalence and lower annual decrease
• Non-unionized blue collar worker occupations had
  lower prevalence and higher annual decrease
• Prevalence of medical insurance varies among
  strata defined by gender, race, and ethnicity

4
Results
5
Conclusion/Recommendations

• Medical insurance and access to medical care are
  significant factors in the health of US workers
  and their families
• Inadequate medical insurance coverage and lack of
  access to medical care (especially preventive
  care) can lead to higher rates of acute and
  chronic disease
• Decreased access to medical insurance is
  concentrated in low-wage subpopulations of the US
  workforce, particularly among Hispanic workers
• Fewer workers with medical insurance has negative
  impact on the health of these workers and their
  families and on the ultimate cost of their
  medical care that must be born by the US society
• Thank you / Questions?