Census Pre-COVID Poverty & Health Insurance Data

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

CENSUS RELEASES PRE-COVID POVERTY & HEALTH DATA

The U.S. Census Bureau has

released its latest data on poverty, income inequality, and health coverage. The data covers 2019 and represents pre-pandemic economic conditions. Despite marginal improvements, the data lays bare the economic and health inequities that were in place before the pandemic and that have been exacerbated by it.

The Census Bureau's 3 reports below are resources for Community Needs Assessments, Planning, and Advocacy efforts:

1. Income and Official Poverty Rate (OPR): Median household income, controlling for inflation, increased by 6.8 percent in 2019 and the official poverty rate dropped 1.3 percentage points, from 11.8 to 10.5 percent. While incomes and poverty rates improved across all race categories, median incomes for Black and Latinx households ($45,438 and $56,113, respectively) remained far below those of their white counterparts ($76,057). Poverty rates for Black and Latinx individuals (18.8% and 15.7%, respectively) were more than double that of white non-Hispanics (7.3%).

2. Health Care Coverage: In 2019, 9.2 percent of people interviewed were not covered by health insurance (29.6 million), up from 8.9 percent (28.6 million) in 2018. Data on uninsured was broken down by age, race, income-to-poverty ratio, work experience, and marital status. The percentage of people covered by Medicaid also dropped from 20.5 percent to 19.8 percent. This was the second consecutive year since passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that both Medicaid coverage and insurance coverage overall decreased.

3. Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM): The SPM -- which factors in tax credits, government assistance programs, and expenses -- decreased 1.0 percentage point, from 12.8 to 11.7 percent. During 2019, SPM factors prevented millions of people from falling below the poverty line, including tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (7.5 million), food assistance (2.5 million), housing assistance (2.6 million), and Social Security (26.5 million).

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) has released a brief analyzing the data and the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN) has helpful information on how to locate data on the Census website.

If you have questions, please contact Ryan Gelman, our Senior Associate for Public Policy and Advocacy.

Ryan P. Gelman, Esq.

Senior Associate for Public Policy & Advocacy

Community Action Partnership
1020 19th Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036

[email protected]
www.communityactionpartnership.com