QuickStats: Percentage* of Families That Did Not Get Needed Medical Care Because of Cost, by Poverty Status§ — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2013 and 2018

Article Metrics
Altmetric:
Citations:
Views:

Views equals page views plus PDF downloads

Related Materials

The figure is a bar chart showing the percentage of U.S. families that did not get needed medical care in the past 12 months in 2013 and in 2018 because of cost, by poverty status, based on data from the National Health Interview Survey. Overall, the percentage decreased from 12.1%26#37; in 2013 to 9.7%26#37; 2018. The percentage of families that did not get medical care decreased from 2013 to 2018 for poor families, (22.7%26#37; to 17.3%26#37;) and for near-poor families (20.4%26#37; to 16.0%26#37;), but there no significant change for not-poor families (7.1%26#37; and 6.6%26#37;).

* With 95% confidence intervals shown by error bars.

Household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population were conducted using the National Health Interview Survey Family component. Estimates were derived from answers to the question “During the past 12 months, was there any time when (you/someone in the family) needed medical care, but did not get it because (you/the family) couldn’t afford it?”

§ Poverty status, based on family income and family size, using the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds. “Poor” families are defined as those with incomes below the poverty threshold; “near poor” families have incomes of 100% to <200% of the poverty threshold; and “not poor” families have incomes of ≥200% of the poverty threshold.

The percentage of all families that did not get needed medical care because of cost in the past 12 months decreased from 12.1% in 2013 to 9.7% 2018. From 2013 to 2018, the percentage of poor families that did not get medical care decreased (22.7% to 17.3%) as did the percentage of near-poor families (20.4% to 16.0%); no significant change occurred for not-poor families (7.1% and 6.6%). In 2013 and 2018, the percentage of families that did not get needed medical care because of cost was lowest among the not poor.

Source: National Health Interview Survey, 2013 and 2018 data. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm.

Reported by: Michael E. Martinez, MPH, MHSA, memartinez@cdc.gov, 301-458-4758; Tainya C. Clarke, PhD.


Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Families That Did Not Get Needed Medical Care Because of Cost, by Poverty Status — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2013 and 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:727. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6923a4.

MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of the date of publication.

All HTML versions of MMWR articles are generated from final proofs through an automated process. This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users are referred to the electronic PDF version (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr) and/or the original MMWR paper copy for printable versions of official text, figures, and tables.

Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.

View Page In: PDF [68K]