Understanding the current population survey’s insurance estimates and the medicaid ‘undercount’: People can’t accurately recall their insurance status when asked by the census bureau’s survey takers—so these widely quoted estimates may be substantially off

Jacob A. Klerman; Michael Davern; Kathleen Thiede Call; Victoria Lynch; Jeanne D. Ringel

doi:10.1377/hlthaff.28.6.w991

Understanding the current population survey’s insurance estimates and the medicaid ‘undercount’: People can’t accurately recall their insurance status when asked by the census bureau’s survey takers—so these widely quoted estimates may be substantially off

Jacob A. Klerman, Michael Davern, Kathleen Thiede Call, Victoria Lynch, Jeanne D. Ringel

Health Policy and Management

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

The widely cited Census Bureau estimates of the number of uninsured people, based on the Current Population Survey, probably overstate the number of uninsured people. This is because of a Medicaid “undercount”: Fewer people report to survey takers that they’re covered by Medicaid than program administrative data show are enrolled. Our study finds that the undercount can be explained by the inability of people to recall their insurance status accurately from the previous year. We suggest that other data sources, such as Census’s American Community Survey, should be studied to determine whether they would provide better estimates of the uninsured.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	w991-w1001
Journal	Health Affairs
Volume	28
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.28.6.w991
State	Published - Sep 10 2009

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This paper was made possible by the careful data work of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, by Grant no. 052084 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC; Michael Davern, principal investigator), and by internal funding from Abt Associates. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Abt Associates, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, SHADAC, RAND, or the Urban Institute.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2009 Project HOPE–The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

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Klerman, J. A., Davern, M., Call, K. T., Lynch, V., & Ringel, J. D. (2009). Understanding the current population survey’s insurance estimates and the medicaid ‘undercount’: People can’t accurately recall their insurance status when asked by the census bureau’s survey takers—so these widely quoted estimates may be substantially off. Health Affairs, 28(6), w991-w1001. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.28.6.w991

Understanding the current population survey’s insurance estimates and the medicaid ‘undercount’: People can’t accurately recall their insurance status when asked by the census bureau’s survey takers—so these widely quoted estimates may be substantially off. / Klerman, Jacob A.; Davern, Michael; Call, Kathleen Thiede et al.
In: Health Affairs, Vol. 28, No. 6, 10.09.2009, p. w991-w1001.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Klerman, JA, Davern, M, Call, KT, Lynch, V & Ringel, JD 2009, 'Understanding the current population survey’s insurance estimates and the medicaid ‘undercount’: People can’t accurately recall their insurance status when asked by the census bureau’s survey takers—so these widely quoted estimates may be substantially off', Health Affairs, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. w991-w1001. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.28.6.w991

Klerman JA, Davern M, Call KT, Lynch V, Ringel JD. Understanding the current population survey’s insurance estimates and the medicaid ‘undercount’: People can’t accurately recall their insurance status when asked by the census bureau’s survey takers—so these widely quoted estimates may be substantially off. Health Affairs. 2009 Sep 10;28(6):w991-w1001. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.6.w991

Klerman, Jacob A. ; Davern, Michael ; Call, Kathleen Thiede et al. / Understanding the current population survey’s insurance estimates and the medicaid ‘undercount’ : People can’t accurately recall their insurance status when asked by the census bureau’s survey takers—so these widely quoted estimates may be substantially off. In: Health Affairs. 2009 ; Vol. 28, No. 6. pp. w991-w1001.

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Understanding the current population survey’s insurance estimates and the medicaid ‘undercount’: People can’t accurately recall their insurance status when asked by the census bureau’s survey takers—so these widely quoted estimates may be substantially off

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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