Uninsured Myths and Facts

1	MYTH: People without health coverage don't work.	FACT: More than eight in 10 of the non-elderly uninsured (82.8 percent) live in families where the head of the family works. [1]¹
2	MYTH: Most people without health insurance are very poor.	FACT: In 2006, more than 33 million of the uninsured had household incomes of $25,000 or more, compared with nearly 14 million in households earning less.² (The federal poverty level for a family of four in 2006 was $20,000.)
3	MYTH: It doesn’t really matter whether a person has health insurance.	FACT: An estimated 18,000 - 22,000 Americans die each year because they don't have health coverage.³
4	MYTH: Virtually everyone who works for a large employer has health coverage.	FACT: One in five uninsured workers (22.4 percent) are employed in firms with 500 or more employees. [2]⁴

Sources

¹ Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from the March Current Population Survey, 2007 Supplement.
² "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006. [3]" U.S. Census Bureau, August 2007, table 6, p. 21.
³ "Final Report Release Event – Insuring America's Health: Principles and Recommendations. [4]" Institute of Medicine, January 14, 2004. and Dorn, S. "Uninsured and Dying Because of It: Updating the Institute of Medicine Analysis on the Impact of Uninsurance on Mortality. [5]" Urban Institute, 2008.
⁴ Fronstin P. "Sources of Health Insurance and Characteristics of the Uninsured: Analysis of the March 2007 Current Population Survey. [6]" Employee Benefit Research Institute, October 2007, figure 11, p. 14.

Please note that EBRI's analysis defines children as individuals ages 0-17, whereas other sources may define children as ages 0-18. This difference accounts for the variance between the reported numbers of uninsured children, depending on the source and method of analysis.

Other Related Fact Sheets

Overview [7]

Age & Gender [8]

Children [9]

Immigration Status and Nativity [10]

Race/Ethnicity [11]

Educational Attainment [12]

Income & Poverty Status [13]

Workers [1]

Quick Facts on the Uninsured [14]

Children's Health Care Coverage [15]

Links:
[1] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/workers
[2] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/employment-based-coverage
[3] http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf
[4] http://www.iom.edu/event.asp?id=16675
[5] http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=411588
[6] http://www.ebri.org/pdf/briefspdf/EBRI_IB_10a-20071.pdf
[7] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/overview
[8] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/age-and-gender
[9] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/children
[10] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/immigration-status-and-nativity
[11] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/raceethnicity
[12] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/educational-attainment
[13] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/income-and-poverty-status
[14] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/quick-facts-uninsured
[15] http://covertheuninsured.org/content/childrens-health-care-coverage