Share of Uninsured Americans Dropped Slightly in 2020, CDC Finds

Nearly 32 million people in the U.S. lacked health insurance in 2020, a modest drop from about 33 million the year before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.

The government data confirms earlier reports that losses in employer-sponsored insurance during the pandemic didn’t lead to higher uninsured rates because many people were able to shift to Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage.

Among adults aged 18-64, 13.9% were uninsured when interviewed in 2020, the CDC said. Just over one-fifth of adults had public coverage such as Medicaid or Medicare, and about 68% had private health insurance coverage. Nearly 9 million people, about 4%, had private health insurance plans that they obtained through Affordable Care Act exchanges.

Hispanic adults (29.3%) were more likely than non-Hispanic black (14.6%), non-Hispanic white (9.2%), and non-Hispanic Asian (8.8%) adults to be uninsured, according to the report.

Some 5.1% of children under the age of 18 were uninsured, the CDC said. Children with public health insurance coverage accounted for 42.2%, and 54.9% had private coverage, according to the report.