By Rebecca Adams, CQ HealthBeat Associate Editor
December 16, 2014 -- Young adults were the group most likely to gain insurance in the United States in the first half of this year. But even after the improvements, they remain more likely to be uninsured than people over 45 years old.
About 19 percent of people enrolled in a health insurance plan through the federal or state marketplaces were between the ages of 18 and 29, according to new data from the National Center on Health Statistics released last week.
Those numbers fall short of what insurers would prefer. A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis last year found that if young adults between the ages of 18 to 34 years old made up about one-fourth of the population in the individual market, the costs for health plans would be about 2.4 percent higher than the insurers' revenues from premiums.
Most segments of the population gained insurance between 2013 and the first half of 2014, according to the data. Improvements were found among several categories of people, including all Americans, people under the age of 65, and young adults between the ages of 19 and 25.
The decrease in the uninsured rate among young adults from 19 to 25 years old was striking: 26.5 percent of young adults in 2013 didn't have insurance, compared to 20.1 percent in the first six months of this year.
Coverage provided through the government, such as Medicaid, was a part of that increase. About 16.1 percent of young adults in 2013 had public coverage, compared to 19.6 percent of young adults in the first half of 2014.
The percentage of young adults who had private coverage—including marketplace plans—rose from 58.1 percent in 2013 to 61.2 percent in the first half of 2014.
Among all adults between 18 and 64 years old, the percentage who were uninsured at the time they were interviewed fell from 20.4 percent in 2013 to 17.0 percent in the first half of 2014.
About 12.3 percent of people who were 45 to 64 years old were uninsured at the time of their interviews from January to June of this year.
About 6.3 million people were covered by marketplace plans during the second quarter of 2014 from April to June. That was up from about 3.7 million in the period from January to March, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State-based marketplaces did a better job than the federal marketplace operated through healthcare.gov. Adults in states relying on healthcare.gov were more likely to be uninsured than those in other states.
Federal officials have said that about 6.7 million people were covered by marketplace plans in October. About 85 percent of them received subsidies for the coverage under the health care law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152).
Americans have until Feb. 15 to sign up for marketplace coverage for 2015. The deadline for people who want to get new benefits or re-enroll in benefits that start Jan. 1 was this morning.
Among people under age 65, 62.8 percent—or 168.3 million people—were covered by private health insurance plans at the time of their interviews.
People who lived in states that expanded Medicaid under the law also saw big gains in coverage. The percentage of adults who were uninsured in Medicaid expansion states fell from 18.4 percent in 2013 to 14.1 percent in the first half of 2014. Among adults under 64 years old in states that had not expanded Medicaid, the percentage of uninsured decreased much more modestly—from 22.7 percent in 2013 to 20.2 percent in the first six months of 2014.
There was no significant change in the percentage of children who were uninsured at the time of interview, according to the data, largely because kids are the most likely Americans to have coverage. The Children's Health Insurance Program plays a major role in insuring children. The funding for the program runs out Sept. 30.
The data released last week were based on data from interviews with 56,784 people.