Uninsured

New and noteworthy

Quote from KFF President and CEO Drew Altman reads, "when it comes to the “affordability crisis” driving the national discussion of health care today, the chronically ill, and most of all the chronically ill uninsured, are the tip of the spear."

The Group that Struggles the Most in American Health Care

In a new column, Dr. Drew Altman, KFF’s Founding President and CEO, previews findings about the chronically ill uninsured from a large KFF survey of 25,000 Americans focusing on the cost and access challenges facing the chronically ill, which will be released tomorrow. He writes: “There are more than enough needs to go around in American health care, but if I had to pick the one group that struggles the most with costs and access, it would be people with chronic illnesses who are also uninsured.”

Other “Beyond the Data” columns >>

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.

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.

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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  • New Report Looks at Health Care Trends in California Compared to Rest of Nation

    Report

    A new chartbook by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that on most, though not all indicators, California's health care system fares poorly when compared to the U.S. as a whole. The report, Health Care Trends and Indicators in California and the United States, shows that many more Californians have no health insurance than in the rest of the U.S., but when they do have insurance it tends to be more comprehensive and cost less than…

  • Prescription Drug Coverage for Medicare Beneficiaries: A Side-by-Side Comparison

    Other Post

    This document, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., provides a side-by-side comparison of five major federal proposals under consideration to provide outpatient prescription drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. It includes both a summary and a detailed comparison of the following major proposals: S. 357, The Medicare Preservation and Improvement Act of 2001 (Breaux/Frist I), S. 358, The Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2001 (Breaux-Frist II), H.R. 4680, The Medicare Rx 2000 Act (passed…

  • Is Immigration Responsible for the Growth in the Number of the Uninsured?

    Report

    This issue paper analyzes the role of immigrants in the growth of the number uninsured people in America. Results show that recent immigrants are not the reason for the growth in the number of the uninsured from 1994 to 1998 despite their high rates of uninsurance. Issue Paper

  • Health Insurance for Unemployed Workers

    Event Date:
    Event

    Submitted testimony of Diane Rowland, executive director of the Commission, about health insurance options for unemployed workers. She was scheduled to testify to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, but the hearing was postponed.

  • Disparities in Women’s Health

    Other Post

    Disparities in Women's Health Disparities in health and health care continue to burden women, particularly affecting women of color or those who are poor. To shed more light on the factors contributing to inequalities in health and access to care for women, the Kaiser Family Foundation provided support for the newest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association (JAMWA) Disparities in Women's Health. This special issue features an editorial by Surgeon General…

  • Sicker and Poorer: The Consequences of Being Uninsured

    Report

    Sicker and Poorer: The Consequences of Being Uninsured A new report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured synthesizes the major findings of the past 25 years of health services research assessing the most important effects of health insurance. The report evaluates thousands of citations and 230 research articles to assess the consequences of being uninsured for health status and economic opportunity and concludes that the weight of this large body of research…

  • Analyses of Kaiser Permanente Services for Insured Children

    Report

    Analyses of the Child Health Plan and Other Kaiser Permanente Services for Publicly and Privately Insured Children, a new policy brief prepared for the Kaiser Family Foundation and the California HealthCare Foundation by the Institute for Health Policy Studies at U.C. San Francisco, summarizes the results and policy implications of four different analyses comparing the experiences of children enrolled through Kaiser Permanente in the Child Health Plan, Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, and commercial programs. The aggregate…