Comparing Federal Government Surveys that Count Uninsured People in America

Recent media reports and editorials have debated the method by which the number of uninsured is calculated. Researchers often use data from several different national surveys to estimate the number of uninsured people in America and discrepancies in their estimates are common. In order to bring some clarity to the debate, experts at the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) published an issue brief detailing the different ways in which federal surveys, including the Census, identify the number of people who are uninsured.