Changes in the 1995 current population survey and estimates of health insurance coverage

This analysis compares the March 1994 and March 1995 Current Population Survey (CPS) counts of the numbers of people with different types of health insurance and without any health insurance coverage. The findings contain some suprises: there were no changes in the numbers of nonelderly people with Medicaid coverage and without any health insurance, and there were increases in the numbers of nonelderly people with employer-sponsored health insurance and with CHAMPUS/VA/military health care. Four changes were introduced in the CPS in 1995 and were likely, by themselves, to both raise and lower the estimates of the number of people with specific types of health insurance coverage. Three of the changes relate to questions about health insurance coverage; they coincide with the traditional mid-decade shift in the sample framework for the CPS.