Uninsured

Data and analysis

The coverage gap exists because some states did not expand Medicaid under the ACA to cover adults under age 65 without dependent children with incomes at/below 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL)

How Many Uninsured Are in the Coverage Gap?

An estimated 1.4 million uninsured individuals in the 10 states without Medicaid expansion, including many working adults, people of color, and those with disabilities, remain in the "coverage gap," ineligible for Medicaid or for ACA tax credits that would make coverage affordable.

The Uninsured and Health Coverage

This Health Policy 101 chapter examines the share of the United States population who are uninsured, highlighting their demographics and the challenges they face because of the lack of coverage.

Key Facts on Health Coverage of Immigrants

This fact sheet provides an overview of health coverage for immigrants based on data from the 2023 KFF/LA Times Survey of Immigrants. As of 2023, half of likely undocumented immigrant adults and one in five lawfully present immigrant adults reported being uninsured.

New and noteworthy

Affordability Is the Issue Now, But Look for the Uninsured to Make a Comeback

A new column on the uninsured from President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman explains: “The uninsured is not the most politically salient problem in health care now, that’s affordability, nor is it the non-problem some say it is. But it’s coming back. And the problem of the chronically ill uninsured is glaring.” Read more.

Key Facts about the Uninsured Population

The number and share of people without insurance grew in 2024, increasing for the first time since 2019, according to KFF’s analysis of data from the American Community Survey (ACS). This issue brief describes trends in health coverage in 2024, examines the characteristics of the uninsured population , and summarizes the access and financial implications of not having coverage.

More on the uninsured population >>

Who was uninsured in 2024?

Latest Polling
9.8%

The share of people under age 65 without insurance
62%

The share of uninsured adults who said they were uninsured because coverage is not affordable
59%

The share of uninsured adults who said they or someone living with them had problems paying for health care
39%

The share of uninsured adults who reported delaying or not getting needed care or medication due to cost

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  • State Medicaid Disenrollments

    What Do the Early Medicaid Unwinding Data Tell Us?

    Policy Watch

    As states begin to unwind the COVID emergency continuous enrollment provision and resume Medicaid disenrollments, early data from a handful of states – highlighted on KFF’s regularly-updated Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker -- reveal wide variation in disenrollment rates.

  • Analysis Estimates Up To 2 Million Uninsured People Could Require COVID-19 Hospitalization

    News Release

    Patients Could Still Be on the Hook for Outpatient Costs, Costs If They Test Negative, and Cost Sharing A new KFF analysis estimates that between 670,000 and 2 million uninsured people around the country eventually could be hospitalized with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Reimbursing hospitals for those treatments could cost between $13.9 billion and $41.8 billion. Trump administration has indicated that it plans to reimburse hospitals for the care of…

  • How Many of the Uninsured Can Purchase a Marketplace Plan for Free in 2020?

    Issue Brief

    This analysis looks at how many of the remaining uninsured are eligible for premium subsidies that are large enough to cover the entire cost of a bronze plan, which is the minimum level of coverage available on the Marketplaces. It estimates 28% of uninsured individuals who could shop on the ACA Marketplace, or 4.7 million people nationwide, are eligible to purchase a bronze plan with $0 premiums after subsidies in 2020.

  • Analysis: 4.7 Million Uninsured People Nationally Could Get a No-Premium Bronze Plan in the ACA Marketplace,Though Deductibles Would be High

    News Release

    As the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment period nears an end in most areas this week, a new KFF analysis finds that 4.7 million currently uninsured people could get a bronze-level plan for 2020 and pay nothing in premiums after factoring in tax credits, though the deductibles would be high. That works out to 28 percent of the 16.7 million uninsured individuals who are potential customers for coverage through ACA marketplaces. Half of the uninsured…

  • Uninsured Most Likely to Delay or Go Without Care or Prescription Drugs Due to Cost

    Feature

    Many uninsured people do not obtain the treatments their health care providers recommend for them because of the cost of care. In 2018, uninsured nonelderly adults were more than three times as likely as adults with private coverage to say that they postponed or did not get a needed prescription drug due to cost.

  • How Many Uninsured Adults Could Be Reached If All States Expanded Medicaid?

    Issue Brief

    As more people lose their jobs and accompanying ESI, more may fall into the coverage gap, particularly starting in 2021 after unemployment benefits expire for many who have lost their jobs and incomes are likely to drop below the minimum threshold for marketplace subsidies. This analysis estimates how many uninsured adults—including those uninsured even before the pandemic and those who could become uninsured as a result of it— could become eligible for Medicaid if states…

  • New Survey Finds 72% of Previously Uninsured Californians Now Have Coverage, Including 78% of Those Eligible for New Affordable Care Act Options

    News Release

    For Remaining Uninsured Residents, Cost and Immigration Status Are Main Obstacles Three years after the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions were fully implemented in California, nearly three quarters (72%) of the state’s previously uninsured residents now have health coverage, finds the fourth Kaiser Family Foundation Longitudinal Panel Survey, which is tracking the experiences of a randomly selected group of Californian adults who were uninsured in 2013. This is similar to the share who reported having insurance…

  • COVID-19 Vaccine Access for Uninsured Adults this Fall

    Policy Watch

    This policy watch provides an overview of how uninsured adults currently access recommended vaccines, how they have accessed COVID-19 vaccines thus far, including what is known about their vaccine uptake, and proposed plans to provide COVID-19 vaccines to uninsured adults this fall and beyond.