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QuickStats: Percentage* of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Who Are Very Worried about Medical Costs,† by Home Ownership§ and Age Group — National Health Interview Survey,¶ United States, 2015
Weekly / December 30, 2016 / 65(5051);1455
* With 95% confidence intervals indicated with error bars.
† Based on the response “very worried” to the question on sample adult questionnaire, “How worried are you right now about not being able to pay medical costs for normal healthcare?“ Other categories included: “Moderately worried,” “Not too worried,” “Not worried at all.” Unknowns were included in the denominators when calculating percentages.
§ Defined by family respondent’s response to question on family core questionnaire, “Is this house/apartment owned or being bought, rented, or occupied by some other arrangement by [you/or someone in your family]?“
¶ Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the noninstitutionalized, U.S. civilian population and are derived from the National Health Interview Survey family core and sample adult components.
In 2015, 15.6% of adults who lived in rental houses/apartments were very worried about paying for medical costs, compared with 8.7% of adults who lived in family-owned homes. Adults aged 18–39 years who lived in rental homes were more likely than those in family-owned homes to be very worried about paying medical costs (12.9% versus 8.0%). Among adults aged 40–64 years and ≥65 years, renters were twice as likely as home owners to be very worried about medical costs (22.3% versus 11.4%, and 8.6% versus 4.0%, respectively).
Source: National Health Interview Survey, 2015 data. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm.
Reported by: Patricia C. Lloyd, PhD, plloyd@cdc.gov, 301-458-4420; Veronica E. Helms, MPH.
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Who Are Very Worried about Medical Costs, by Home Ownership and Age Group — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2016;65:1455. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm655051a7.
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