Personal tools

Your Central Puget Sound Information Source for Making Sustainable Choices

 
You are here:   Home → Social Environment → Health Insurance Coverage
Document Actions

Indicator: Health Insurance Coverage

Percent with No Health Insurance, All Ages, King County

Percent with No Health Insurance, Under Age 18, King County

view full size
Upstream Indicators

There are currently no published Upstream Indicators.

Downstream Indicators
  •   Infant Mortality Rates --- Infant death rates continue to decline. Rates remain highest in high poverty areas and are lower in East Region than other regions in the County.  (view data graph)
  •   Physical and Mental Health Illness --- The percentage of King County adults with severe activity limitation increased between 1998 and 2007. This local finding is consistent with national trends. This local increase corresponds to worsening trends nationally.  (view data graph)
  •   Mortality Causes by Race/Ethnicity and Income --- Among the racial/ethnic groups, the total mortality rate between 1990 and 2003 in King County declined significantly for all but American Indian/Alaska Natives but disparities in the age-adjusted death rates between different racial/ethnic groups in King County remained the same.   (view data graph)
more info
Related Goals

Sustainability Snapshot:

People pay more and more for health insurance, yet many lack access to medication, mental health care and long term care. In a comparison of health care costs in western countries by the World Health Organization, people in the United States spent more for health care than in those countries where there is universal coverage, but got less by such measures as doctors per 100,000 people and average number of doctors visits. In King County, more than one in ten people go uninsured and according to a report by the Seattle Foundation, King County adults without a high-school diploma are seven times more likely not to have health insurance than those with college degrees.

Sustainability Trend:

In King County, 15.5% of adult residents, 190,000 lacked health insurance in 2004. This is the highest percentage recorded since data began being collected in 1991. (Chapter 11, Health of King County 2006)

Data Discussion

The Indicator Defined

Percent of population that is uninsured. According to the Census Bureau, a person is considered uninsured if they are not covered by any type of health insurance for the entire year.

Data Interpretation/Evaluation

In King County, in 2000 . . .

* 11.6 percent of the population had no health insurance coverage compared to 13.8 percent in all of Washington and 14.2 percent in all of the United States;

* the percent uninsured ranked 39th - from highest to lowest - out of Washington's 39 counties;

* 8 percent of children under the age of 18, or 31,656 children, had no health insurance coverage compared to 11 percent of all children in Washington;

* the percent of children without health coverage ranked 39th - from highest to lowest - out of Washington's 39 counties.

Data Source and Limitations

Data discussion and graphs were excerpted from the Northwest Area Foundation's Indicator Website by Sustainable Seattle.

The new Small Area Health Insurance Estimates program from the US Census Bureau has released initial estimates of health insurance coverage for all counties.  Keep in mind that these are experimental estimates based on survey data, population estimates and administrative records.  Still, this is the only dataset with consistent estimates for all counties in the nation.

collapse all

Additional Resources