Estimates for every county have been revealed.
The United States Census Bureau has released the data from 2010, which provides estimates regarding the health insurance coverage within all of the 3,140 counties across the country.
The Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) are the leading source of this information.
In fact, these estimates are frequently considered to be the only ones that can provide any solid information about the health insurance coverage in these areas for a given single year. It is the only collection of data that represents the circumstance for every county in the United States.
The health insurance estimates can be categorized in several different groups for deeper study.
The available categories are age group, sex, ethnicity and Hispanic origin (per state, not county), as well as by the ratios of income to poverty. As has been the case in the statistics of previous years, the estimates apply to the populations under the age of 65 overall. That said, this most recent release is the first time that there have been estimates made about the health insurance coverage for those between the ages of 50 and 64, at the county level.
These estimates will become very important for assisting users to track the difference that is made in the various counties by the health care reforms as they go into place in 2014. This is because the Affordable Care Act’s regulations will change certain benefits through Medicaid and will help to bring health insurance coverage to some uninsured individuals that qualify due to their incomes.
The estimates will also be helpful for assisting local planners to make certain important decisions, by understanding important regional factors such as the counties in which children in low income families are most likely to be without coverage. The SAHIE website mapping tools can also be used to view regional health insurance coverage trends.
Because of the new data for county specific information in the 50 to 64 year old age group, it also becomes possible to monitor the health insurance coverage status in that group. This is important because that age is more likely to actually consume medical care services when compared with individuals in younger ages groups. With this information, planners and officials in health care become better capable of understanding the needs of these segments of the population.