Health Insurance Coverage Definitions
Uninsured
- People are considered uninsured if they have had no health care coverage for the entire year
- If they have had coverage for any part of the year, they are considered insuredThis definition is consistent with way the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) defines insurance status.
Private coverage
- Health insurance that covers an employee and/or a relative such as employer provided plans and/or union provided plans
- Direct purchase plans – a plan purchased by an individual from a private provider
Government-provided coverage
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Medicare
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Medicaid and/or SCHIP
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Military health care (TRICARE, CHAMPUS, CHAMVA, or VA)
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State or local-specific plans
- People covered only by Indian Health Services are considered uninsured in this study
Definition of Poverty
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Poverty in this study is consistent with how the Federal government officially defines poverty, which is determined solely by family size and income and is called the poverty threshold.
- For a complete
description of the basic poverty
calculation we refer you to this web
site supported by the U.S. Census
Bureau:
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This definition was directed by the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Statistical Policy Directive 14.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) uses the official poverty thresholds as defined above but also uses poverty guidelines as described at http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/08poverty.shtml.
How the Poverty Threshold Works - The poverty thresholds apply to families and are governed by income and specific family sizes.
- A family listed at 199 percent of poverty means that this family has 99 percent more income (almost twice as much) as the same size family listed at the 100 percent poverty threshold.
- A family is officially in poverty if it’s income is at or below 100 percent of the poverty threshold.